As we draw to a close on our VISION House® Los Angeles project, I find myself reflecting on the simultaneously elating and excruciating process of designing, building, accessorizing, and selling a home. Since each VISION House that we build in cities around the country is unique, every project necessitates a special exploration of climate, topography, appropriate building science and technologies, key market drivers, and aesthetic preferences. Fortunately, we do not embark upon these sojourns alone—we are joined and guided by kindred spirits who, like us, are utilizing these projects to affect positive change in the world.

I am grateful to our partners in the VISION House® Los Angeles project. It is rare to meet a team with the integrity, competency, dynamism, and optimism embodied by our builder, Structure Home. Like Michelangelo’s Slave series, Structure succeeded in liberating an enlightened home from the earth that stands as a monument to sustainability.

Things that are right in the world invoke an intrinsic sense of harmony. Good design has the ability to center the spirit. The Zen-like qualities of the VISION House® Los Angeles (appropriately located on Via de La Paz, or path of peace) always remind me of the quote by author Wayne Dyer, “Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.”

In the realm of sustainability, it seems that we’re often strong when it comes to visualizing the end destination, but weak when it comes to defining the means to get there. Green Builder Media’s VISION House® Series is designed to help bridge the chasm between our long-term sustainability objectives and short-term methodology and tactics.

Through the VISION House Series, we showcase innovative approaches to green building and sustainable living, as well as beautiful, cost-effective, efficient, and intelligent products that are available on the market today. In the VISION House Los Angeles, for example, the products provided by our generous sponsors, including the Nexia whole home automation system, Kohler low flow plumbing fixtures, Johns Manville high performance insulation system, KitchenCraft low VOC cabinets, Leviton lighting and solar solutions, and Uponor radiant heat, enhanced the home’s exquisite aesthetic as well as its performance, comfort, and durability.

We invite you to follow our VISION House projects on our website at http://www.greenbuildermag.com/VISION-HOUSE. There, you can read about many of our past and existing projects, ranging from the VISION House® Los Angeles, to the VISION House® Vegas (a retrofit of a mid-century modern Eichler-style home), to the VISION House® in INNOVENTIONS (a green show home exhibit located at Epcot® at the Walt Disney World® Resort).

I particularly enjoyed reading the 4-part 30 Reasons to Love the VISION House Los Angeles blog written in May and June by the Director of our VISION House projects, Heather Wallace, which includes comprehensive information about the advanced green products and intelligent systems used in the home.

Stay tuned for more exciting VISION House news—we’re about to unveil our next project, which will be completely different from and equally as compelling as our prior projects!

Through our VISION House Series, we have the opportunity to bring to life our impressions of sustainability. How do you manifest yours? Write to me at sara@greenbuildermag.com, follow me on Twitter @SaraGBM.

For more information about green building and sustainable living, visit www.greenbuildermag.com, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @greenbuildermag and @VISIONHouseGBM for regular updates and breaking news.

I have spent the past two days at the Solar Power International (SPI) conference in Orlando, which is appropriate given that enough sunlight floods the state of Florida each day to power the entire nation for a year.

During my time here, I have been duly impressed by the broad spectrum of intelligent clean energy systems, innovative leasing and financing models that finally make solar affordable, and passionate entrepreneurs who are dreaming up creative solutions and public/private partnerships to push solar into the market.

Unlike many of the building conferences that I have attended over the past few years, people here are not lamenting today’s housing metrics. They’re not looking to the past to determine how we define a successful future. On the contrary—with an annual growth rate over 100%, the solar industry is building its own rocket ship that will transport the sector into a completely different galaxy, far, far away from its previous 30-year slumber.

The excitement is visceral. At one booth, a senior executive is so animated as he tells me about his panels with over 18% efficiency that he trips over a chair. At another booth, a Fortune 500 company President, CEO, and VP Marketing interrupt each other as they reveal with glee details about the expansion of their solar products and services portfolio.

People in the solar industry are savvy enough to know that there are still many obstacles to surmount before we receive broad adoption of solar technology in this country. They realize that their biggest competitor is not necessarily the guy in the booth down the aisle—it’s the big oil company that has seemingly endless resources to stroke checks to elect our policy makers and other market influencers. Nonetheless, the mood is optimistic.

The solar industry’s opportunity was perhaps best illustrated by keynote speaker President Bill Clinton. He was referring to an annual contest held by a large international network of independent business schools, where 3 global issues are presented and the winner is the student or team that submits the most innovative and viable solution to one of those problems.

In last year’s competition, relayed Clinton, one of the three global issues had to do with bringing distributed solar power to communities around the country. The winning team was from New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus and comprised of four students - one from India, one from Pakistan, one from China, and one from Taiwan. As photos were being taken, Clinton jokingly asked the students if they had any aversion to posing together, given the history of tension between their countries. The students, slightly bemused and annoyed, responded in unison, “We are so over it.”

Those students, as well as many others at this conference, throughout our nation, and across the globe, are tearing down old barriers and setting aside historical conflicts to build a new, bright future for our planet. If we chose not to embrace this fresh way of thinking to create viable economic solutions for a clean future, we will simply become irrelevant.

What innovating things are you doing in your community to facilitate a more sustainable future? Write to me at sara@greenbuildermag.com, follow me on Twitter @SaraGBM.

For more information about green building and sustainable living, visit www.greenbuildermag.com, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @greenbuildermag and @VISIONHouseGBM for regular updates and breaking news.

It’s said that the most efficient and inexpensive unit of energy is the negawatt—the unit that doesn’t actually get generated as a result of energy efficiency, conservation, proper building science, and advanced technologies. Unfortunately, this knowledge about the negawatt seems to be preciously held within the ranks of energy wonks and academicians, and it may just be the building industry’s best kept secret.

Neither the Republican nor the Democratic presidential candidate appears to fully understand or embrace the efficacy and cost-savings of the negawatt. If they did, why wouldn’t they imbue their campaign platform with no-nonsense, crystal clear, and intelligent discourse about the benefits of conservation and efficiency, and incorporate the simple, everyone-wins concept as a major component in their energy policies?

As outlined nicely by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET), Governor Romney’s energy plan will supposedly enable North America to become energy independent by 2020, decreasing costs to consumers by increasing domestic production. Romney’s plan would:

• Streamline existing environmental regulations
• Aggressively open new offshore areas for drilling starting with California and Virginia
• Allow the states—not the federal government—to handle permitting and oversight of onshore energy production on federal lands
• Approve the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada
• Conduct a full assessment of the nation’s potential oil and gas resources
• Revitalize nuclear power

As RESNET points out, references to energy efficiency and renewable energy are completely nonexistent in Romney’s plan and campaign rhetoric.

President Obama does have a track record when it comes to energy efficiency. He talks about conservation, efficiency, and renewables in campaign speeches. He has encouraged Congress to pass the “25e” Tax Credit and the HOMES Act, both of which would reward homeowners for reduced energy consumption as a part of a qualified whole-home energy efficiency retrofit, and they would also create significant revenue generating opportunities for manufacturers, raters, contractors, and other businesses in the building industry. He also recently signed an Executive Order to increase industrial energy efficiency.

Nonetheless, his formal energy plan is conspicuously devoid of a solid national conservation and efficiency strategy. RESNET summarizes Obama’s “all-of-the-above” approach as a motley blend of energy solutions, including:

• Developing additional oil opportunities
• Increasing natural gas production
• Investing in “clean coal”
• Increasing the use of Biofuels
• Harnessing wind energy
• Expanding solar energy production
• Expanding nuclear energy

The only concrete reference to energy efficiency in Obama’s plan is related to fuel efficiency standards, which would double the fuel economy of cars and light trucks by 2025, thereby reducing oil consumption by 2.2 million barrels a day.

It’s hard to believe that neither candidate has harnessed the substantial value of the financial, social, and environmental opportunities associated with energy conservation and efficiency.

The lack of a clear strategy is troubling. But what’s even more disconcerting is that something as non-partisan as energy use and production has been tied into a hateful discussion of climate change and become one of the most heated, semantically tainted issues of our political discourse. Antagonism has trumped common sense to the detriment of our society as well as the environment.

Neither extreme’s rhetoric is right. Our planet is not going to implode tomorrow, nor will economic or individual freedom be jeopardized if we enact an intelligent energy policy or even modernize environmental regulations to deal with today’s realities. We simply don’t have to make a choice between the economy and the environment.

The biggest threat to our progress is not policy or regulation. It’s the zero-sum game of Washington politics that continues to paralyze our nation. In fact, a sound energy policy would undoubtedly be our ticket to increased prosperity—a predictable and progressive energy policy would encourage companies to invest in innovative technologies that lead to higher performance, lower costs, and increased job creation.

Getting our energy policy right is a big deal. Any proposed national energy strategy that doesn’t include a comprehensive plan to implement conservation and efficiency measures is fatally flawed and should not be taken seriously. Voters deserve more informed decision making, homeowners and other energy customers deserve better performance, and future generations certainly deserve a greater commitment to preserving our natural resources as well as their own opportunities for prosperity.

What can we do to influence our leaders to incorporate energy efficiency and conservation into their official energy plans? Write to me at sara@greenbuildermag.com, follow me on Twitter @SaraGBM.

For more information about green building and sustainable living, visit www.greenbuildermag.com, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @greenbuildermag and @VISIONHouseGBM for regular updates and breaking news.