Ideal Bite

I'm right there with you on the 'vintage' house. This year it's Low-VOC paint (since I've been there for over a year and the walls are all still white!). Next year I plan to replace the crumbling driveway with open cell paving, then go for zoned HVAC after that. It's a challenge but a worthwhile one in the long run. I am a LEED Accredited Professional for Commercial Interiors too so if I can set a good example in the way I live, hopefully more clients will see the light!

As far as green home remodeling, I'd encourage you to check out the REGREEN Guidelines created through a partnership between the American Society of Interior Designers and the U.S. Green Building Council. It's brand new and organized by 10 popular home remodeling projects, contains a number of case studies and an interactive strategy library. It's targeted at both design/building professionals as well as savvy consumers. You can check it out at www.regreenprogram.org

LEED for Homes is a great system for new homes but not meant for remodeling and likely would not be useful for apartments. Following Thom Banks suggestion above and check out REGREEN. It's just what you've been waiting for.

I happy to report that Ohio is the only state to require it's new school buildings to be LEED certified. (Not that those are houses or apartments, but still! It's great!)

In response to "personally speaking" some of us do live in a LEED certified home! I worked with a builder and my home was just certified last Friday as being the first PLATINUM LEED home in the southeast (FL, GA, AL, MS). It was built on an infill area, site of a former trailer park that had fallen in disrepair. It has PV panels , geothermal, whole house air filtration, all energy star appliances, bamboo floors, HERS rating of 26(!) Hardie board siding for less than $230,000. Some of us can do it!

My home isn't quite vintage (1954), but I am trying to upgrade it in ways that make sense, such as new, energy efficient windows and some type of attic insulation. we have a dilemma, however. We may be the last people to live in our house. The next owners may tear it down. So we have to consider that when deciding what projects to tackle. Sadly, the charm of the 50s ranch house is lost on the masses.

Great tip! I think you have the stats wrong for how many LEED homes have been certified...well, not exactly wrong so much as not exactly correct. Its true that fewer than 1000 homes have been lEED certified, but what would be an even truer statement is that only around 250 homes have been certified. The LEED for Homes certification was just realized in Jan 2008 (prior to that was only pilot) so it is very, very new.

We would like to have a greener house, but some of the changes are way too expensive. For example, I learned that it will cost around $4000-5000 to install a solar water heater system. Considering we don't use too much water in a 2 and sometimes 3 people household, it makes more sense to get on-demand water heaters. Unfortunately, in this case the US is behind the other developed countries. I am almost 47 years old and growing up in my motherland Turkey, we always had on-demand water heaters. It has been quite a few years now that Turkish people have the option of buying almost 110% efficient systems. Finally the question becomes, why is it this expensive to do greener things in the US, because the labor rate is high and/or the suppliers think they can make more money?

I am in Australia, I have not heard of the LEED certificate? We are all becoming GREEN in our businesses over here ( AS WELL AS OUR HOMES) Government bodies come into the work place and assist you to do the right thing. I own a corporate transport company ( 50 executive vehicles)We have been using a product in our vehicles (diesel, petrol and gas cars & buses) for the last 6 months and we have been reducing our carbon emissions by up to 70%. We are using an MPG CAP this cap is a combustion chamber treatment, forms a catalytic coating in the chamber. At $1.75 per fill up in a 60 LT tank, it is a bargain. The largest Bakery service here in South Australia has the caplet in all their delivery vans. This is what I call an awesome effort to reduce the street level emissions. Balfours Bakery had the product tested through a Government testing station, the largest in Australia. The results are there in black and white. Everyone should be using this caplet in their car. OH by the way and added bonus this CAP saves up to 20% on fuel costs! This has been great for us, having 50 vehicles. www.lessfuellesspollution.com Tests from around the world are available at request email me caz@asolutiontopollution.com

We just completed building our dream green home (you can see it at www.goinggreenatthebeach.com)and have achieved not only LEED Gold status but also: Energy Star; American Lung Association Health House; Environments for Living; Built-Green Five Star; and have met the qualifications for the new National Association of Home Builders green checklist. I can tell you that individual homeowners have many choices when it comes to checklists and it can be overwhelming. Rather than trying to achieve certain certifications (which can be expensive)you can simply learn from the best of them and start small by changing your living habits (use LESS of everything) and making "green" choices when you do home repair or remodeling.