Jason Earle

Very few homes are LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified and even fewer can sell tickets for admission. The concept of the aptly named Boerne House in Boerne, Texas was birthed by Griz & Karen Adams with the assistance of architect Ben Adams, AIA. It features nifty things like driveways and sidewalks made of pervious concrete, which allows rainwater to drain right through, minimizing runoff. The house is heated and cooled geothermally, literally tapping right into one of Mother Nature's most abundant, sustainable resources.

This stuff is so cool, it's hot. (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

There are many houses utilizing these technologies, but I cannot recall one that has bundled such an abundance of them into one package. The website for the project is right here. It's worth a look.

The owners are holding an open house this week and admission is $5. The proceeds are going to a local environmental group. So if you happen to be passing through the San Antonio area over the next few days...

The main question I come away with is this: Is this really sustainable? The upfront costs of going this route, especially with LEED certification, are so high, it makes us wonder when it will be available for the masses. Should living green require so much green?

Obviously there are lots of low and no-cost ways to lighten the load on the planet that our children will inherit, but the word "sustainable" needs to be examined, as many overused words in our lexicon should be.

In the meantime, these pioneers are certainly living examples of what can be done with some additional capital investment, solid guidance and detailed planning driven by an apparently genuine concern for the planet, not to mention the obvious potential health benefits and the newly minted bragging rights that come with a minuscule energy bill.

I know, I know. It's not July anymore, but how can you roundup a month that isn't over?

So now that August is upon us, here it is.

And July has been very interesting, indeed.

We had the Acting Surgeon General issue a 'Call to Action to Promote Healthy Homes.' This initiative calls for a greater awareness about all sorts of things and mold is only a small part of the overall message, but what's great is that it concisely speaks intelligently on the subject of mold awareness, what to do if you have a mold problem, and more importantly, what not to do. Click here for a PDF of the Call to Action (See section 3, page 31)

Also last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced the launch of a website they created to track the link between environmental pollutants and specific illnesses. It's a mash-up of medical and environmental data compiled onto maps to show geographical representations of things like cancer clusters. Currently the scope of the project is limited to a few common environmental illnesses such as asthma and lead poisoning and is primarily focused on air and water quality, which suits us just fine, but they promise to get into a much wider range of ailments, irritants and toxins. It promises to yield some useful information about where and why people are getting sick in certain areas more than others. The Daily Green has a little more to say about the program's shortcomings, but it's a work in progress and clearly I think it's a move in the right direction, albeit a relatively pricey one. They've spent $200 million so far and they're just getting warmed up!

Last, but certainly not least, the World Health Organization (WHO) has released their first Guidelines on Indoor Air Quality: Dampness and Mold. Like all of the documents of its kind, it has its flaws, but the continued movement of governments and government agencies in this direction is certain to be far more beneficial than harmful. Ignorance is always the enemy and lack of awareness is where ignorance begins. Rarely will you hear a rallying cry from me when it comes to government intervention of any sort, but this kind of effort should help foster a higher, healthier level of awareness about mold and the other negative byproducts of dampness indoors, hopefully creating a more rational approach to something which too often elicits panic from so many people.

My favorite little snippet from the WHO piece was when they acknowledged each person’s right to a healthy indoor environment, including safe indoor air.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...and safe indoor air. They seem to have left that last part out of the Declaration of Independence, another fine event from the most recent month past. No doubt it certainly trips up the poetic rhythm, but something tells me that the Founding Fathers might not object to a little creative license in this respect. After all, the pursuit of happiness is pretty pointless when you can't freely breathe.

Till next time...