Good Green Homes: Creating Better Homes for a Healthier Planet [Hardcover]

Jennifer Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2003

Good Green Homes is the answer to creating better homes that are healthier to live in, easier on the environment, less expensive over the long-term, and more delightful to come home to.
(20031101)

Editorial Reviews

Review

With photograph after photograph of I-wanna-live-there domiciles to lust after, Good Green Homes is loaded with inspiration. But it's also a solid reference guide as well, complete with a glossary of terms (impress your friends by throwing around terms like "hydronic radiant-floor heating system") and a list of published and Web resources. (Liz Stevens Fort Worth Star-Telegram )

Good green homes can be any color, and are more mainstream by the minute. Robert teaches the reader all about sustainable building for a healthier planet via tours of real-world living spaces. A good glossary is included. (Judy Walker New Orleans Times-Picayune )

From the Inside Flap

With striking photographs and compelling profiles of real homes that are making a difference, Good Green Homes celebrates the ways in which we can create places that are gorgeous, livable, and more environmentally responsible. From a delightful cottage, an eco-friendly addition to an historic home, a trio of healthy and green city homes, an artist's studio on a wooded island, a vacation retreat in the wine country, a neighborhood of homes that are small in size but large in spirit, a resourcefully remodeled Victorian flat, and more, the homes provide an inspiring array of today's sustainable building movement. Whether you plan to redecorate, remodel, move into a new home, or build a house from the ground up, Good Green Homes offers ideas, inspiration, and real-world advice to get you started. And it's easier than you may think. Creating a green home doesn't require adhering to a particular architectural style or following a set of rigid rules. Good green homes simply mean better homes-homes remodeled or built to save energy and resources, homes that enhance our well-being rather than sap our strength, homes that honor the natural abundance and beauty that surrounds us. Good Green Homes lays out the principles of green building, from choosing a right-sized home to taking charge of the energy we use to selecting products that will keep our homes healthy, and more. It offers a wealth of practical suggestions for how we can start making changes that will put us on the road to a healthier and more environmentally sustainable future.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith; 1 edition (September 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586851799
• ISBN-13: 978-1586851798
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #226,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jennifer Roberts is the author of Good Green Kitchens, Good Green Homes, and Redux: Designs That Reuse, Recycle , and Reveal. As a writer, lecturer and consultant, she specializes in ways in which we can improve our environment and enrich our lives by building better buildings and making smarter choices at home and at work. She has written about green buildings and healthy living for publications as varied as Dwell, Professional Builder, Body + Soul and The Financial Times of London. She holds a certificate in urban permaculture design and has professional accreditation from LEED, the U.S. Green Building Council program that recognizes expertise in green building practices. She lives in San Francisco with her partner, their dog, and four chickens. Visit her website at www.jenniferroberts.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, but...., October 28, 2004

By 

Noah B. Lieb (Colorado USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Good Green Homes: Creating Better Homes for a Healthier Planet (Hardcover)

This book no doubt makes a lovely addition to my coffee table. I feel so inspired and now.. how do I do it?? I was looking for more practical advice that addressed all my reasons for wanting to remodel green - protecting my family's health and our planet's natural resources and my financial savings. If the intention was to create a stunning, inspiring book - great job. If it was to really explain what green is and exactly how to do it, I think I'd look to books like "Green Remodeling" by Johnston and Master or read Environmental Building News....

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should read "GREAT" Green Homes!, October 7, 2003

By 

Louis Nuyens "burro_mail" (Forest Knolls, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Good Green Homes: Creating Better Homes for a Healthier Planet (Hardcover)

First, this book is beautiful!!
Second, it really does what it says -- it shows remarkably beautiful, remarkably 'normal' looking houses that incorporate earth-friendly materials, techniques and technologies.
It is great fun to sift through for ideas about that next remodel and that someday dream home.
I hope that building professionals read it, too -- it dispells a lot of myths about what one must sacrifice in order to have an environmentally-friendly home.
This book is a great combination of lovely to look at and a fascinating reference to read. I plan to have mine out for a while, for myself and (while I've never been one for coffee table books) for any friends who come over!

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real Homes that Make a Difference, March 3, 2004

By 

Rebecca Johnson "The Rebecca Review" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Good Green Homes: Creating Better Homes for a Healthier Planet (Hardcover)

"A recent poll revealed that an astounding 96% of consumers are willing to pay more for green features in a home, and 91% feel that energy-efficient features in a new home were extremely or very important."

If you are planning to redecorate or remodel, Good Green Homes offers ideas, real-world advice and lots of inspiration. Jennifer Roberts is a freelance writer who specializes in sustainable building, energy efficiency and corporate social responsibility. She helps people make choices that encourage positive change in their living environments. She answers the following questions:

How does having a "green" home actually save money?
How can someone who rents their home make significant changes?
What are some ways to protect and improve the quality of air inside our homes?
What are "rapidly renewable sources?"
How can you afford a green home on a limited budget?

Jennifer is also a merchandising manager for the Marina Green stores and joys introducing consumers to the joys of stylish clothes made from organically grown cotton, healthy paints, energy-efficient light bulbs, tableware made from recycled materials and environmentally friendly alternatives to everyday household products.

Featured Homes Include:

A Delightful Cottage
An Ecofriendly addition to a historic home
A Trio of Healthy and Green City Homes
An Artist's studio on a Wooded Island
A Vacation Retreat in the Wine Country
A Neighborhood of Homes
A Remodeled Victorian Flat

It is rather shocking to learn that the air inside our homes can be five times more polluted than the air outside. One look at your energy bill might convince you to read this book.

These homes don't really look all that different, but there are features like skylights to save electricity or there is a home that is naturally cooled, heated and lit. Some homes have solar water-heating systems for the summer and a unique solar power system blended right in with a backyard trellis to generate electricity from the sun.

The section on air quality was of interest to me because I am always moving my Austin air filter about the house.

The "Wine Country Retreat" looked like a house I could live in because it even has a tower. Well, the pools also looked rather inviting.

~The Rebecca Review