Rio+20: BioRegional endorses the Grow Community as a One Planet Community.

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We’re excited to announce that Pooran Desai, founder of BioRegional and champion of the One Planet Living framework, announced at Rio+20 today the official endorsement of the Grow Community as a One Planet Community. Calling it, ‘the best place to live in the USA’, Pooran introduced the Grow Community, and Asani, to a diverse group of international leaders and business leaders as a turning point in North American sustainable development.

From BioRegional: In July 2005, Money Magazine and CNN named Bainbridge Island the second-best place to live in the United States. Even Brad and Jennifer (when they were married) were spotted looking at potential real estate on the island.  Well, there is a community now being constructed on Bainbridge Island which might push Bainbridge Island into that top spot.   

[Related: Rio+20, and the future we want (Video)]

Interested in learning more about One Planet Living, and what it means for our future? Check out this video with Grow Architect, Jonathan Davis, of DavisStudioAD:


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Rio+20, and the future we want [Video].

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Rio+2o is happening right now and everyone on the Grow Community staff is really excited and will be following the action in every way possible. Not sure what Rio+20 is all about, or why the Grow Community might be in a tizzy about it?

Rio+20 is the name being given this year to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) which is being held this year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), popularly called Earth Summit. Rio+20 is a key follow-up conference and milestone in a series of UN conferences based on the 1992 UNCED conference in Rio. The main goals of Rio+20 are securing renewed commitments from world leaders on sustainable development, assessing the progress of earlier commitments and addressing new and emerging challenges.

In addition to the stated goals of the conference, two major themes are being addressed and will be a key focus by the many speakers, workshops and side events taking place at Rio+20:

At the Rio+20 Conference, world leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups, will come together to shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet to get to the future we want.

This video explains Rio+20 in just over a minute.*


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This week at the Grow site: Building energy efficiency (and savings) right into the walls.

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A lot has been happening at the Grow Community construction site this week and we want to make sure you’re kept in the loop! Last week we talked about the air barrier being put up on the Aria which left some residents wondering if we were painting all of the homes at Grow black. We know that with a project this size there will be lots of questions
and general curiosity from the community, so read on for your weekly digest of construction updates at the Grow Community and please let us know in the comments if you have any feedback or if there’s anything specific you would like us to address in a future blog post.

Energy Efficiency is the Name of the Game at Grow this Week 

Energy efficiency is about more than turning down the heat.  And we have always said that living at Grow isn’t all about warm beers and cold showers.  While residents will need to be mindful of their energy use in order to achieve net-zero energy in their homes, we have put an incredible amount of thought into how we can design homes that will be inherently energy efficient, and even more than that, homes that will be comfortable. You won’t be chilly in these homes. We promise.

In order to achieve this, it’s necessary to build the savings right into the walls. Creating enough solar energy to power an entire home with the amount of space available on most roofs’ is very difficult, so the goal  Read more

Grow Drinks Was a Huge Success! Thank You all For Participating!

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Our second Grow Drinks was a huge success! We really enjoyed meeting with everybody and being able to share our vision and ideas for the Grow Community and to hear all of your feedback and listen to your thoughts.

We had expected to give a simple presentation and then mingle with the crowd, but instead, an amazing thing happened: 

Our simple presentation turned into a lively round-table style discussion that felt truly unique and collaborative. We felt very connected to the community and everyone who’s interested in the project in that moment. It’s extremely important for us to be able to enter into conversations about the Grow Community and One Planet Living so we can design a better community for all.

We were honored to have Geof Syphers, an early proponent of the One Planet Living framework in North America, and lead on the Sonoma Mountain Village project, join our discussion and to be able to provide his insight and experience with One Planet Living and sustainable development.

So, in the spirit of last night’s event, we invite you to keep the conversation moving forward with us and to please send us your thoughts here on the blog, on Facebook and Twitter or to join our mailing list for news and updates.

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for our next Grow Drinks, on July 12th! But don’t worry, we’ll post an update to remind you.

Thank you!

The Grow Team

Is Johnny Cash moving to Grow Avenue?

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We’ve been getting a lot of questions at the GROW site regarding the new homes being built along Grow Avenue. Mostly, people seem interested in the progress on the site, when the homes are going to be ready for touring, and why they appear to be being painted black and if we plan on leaving them like that. Our Project Manager, Greg Lotakis, laughed and said he thought it looked like Johnny Cash – the infamous ‘Man in Black’ – was moving to the Grow Community.

You might be a little disappointed to learn that the late, great Johnny Cash is not moving to Bainbridge Island. You will, however, be happy to learn that we aren’t planning on building black homes along Grow Avenue, but are instead, in the process of building some of the most energy efficient homes in North America.

What you’re seeing going up on the first model home at the Grow Community is a weather resistant barrier system called Enviro-Dri, created by Tremco. We chose Enviro-Dri, as opposed to more familiar home sheaths like Tyvec, because the product is top in its class for weather resistant barriers and works for the life of your home to remove moisture and fight molds and mildew, an important aspect to home building in the Pacific Northwest.

Each of the three model homes will be constructed using slightly different wall systems and materials.  We will be testing and monitoring each combination for effectiveness and cost efficiency.  The next home will be coated with a similar product called StoGuard Gold Coat.

As we learn more through the application of each of these different products, we will be posting our thoughts and inviting your feedback.  Let us know in the comments if you have any questions or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter for all the latest news and information on the Grow Community project.

The Grow Team.

Wondering What’s Going On at the New Construction Site Along Grow Avenue?

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Those of you who have driven by Grow Avenue have seen that we have started construction and may be wondering what we are up to.  We have recently begun construction of three model homes that will be prototypes for the Grow Community. The model homes face Grow Avenue and are intended to showcase the different designs and floor-plans which will be available throughout the site. Construction will be complete and the homes available to tour mid-summer.

Grow is the first endorsedOne Planet Community to build residential homes in the United States. A One Planet Community is built to the highest standards for environmental, economic and social sustainability. One Planet takes development beyond the standards of LEED, requiring not only sustainable building design, but sustainable lifestyle design. The Grow project pays attention to every detail – not only how buildings are built, but how people live in those buildings. We at Asani believe that our built environment affects our health and happiness and are building Grow to reflect our needs as social creatures as well as the needs of the planet.  With solar power on the roof, a garden in the backyard and a car share program on-site, it will not only be easy, but affordable and fun to live a zero-carbon lifestyle at Grow.

To accomplish this, our team has designed incredibly energy efficient homes which will provide residents with an easy way to live a carbon-free lifestyle.  We have worked hard to balance cost considerations with the latest in building systems and technologies. The homes you see under construction just now are model homes that will be used to test not only the various energy-efficient building designs and systems, they will also be used to gather feedback on the home layout and design, as well as the One Planet living concept.

If successful, these models will be turned into actual residential facilities that can serve as a sustainable home to many people. The same model may be replicated soon across the country with ample help from construction companies in jacksonville fl as well as other cities in which the One Planet living concept may be implemented. Construction practices for residential homes are taking a turn towards more sustainable processes which can facilitate a bigger change in the coming years. More and more people seem to be recognizing the value of living in energy-efficient homes with plenty of natural light and surrounded by greenery. Not only is this a great step towards protecting the Earth, but also towards a healthier lifestyle.

The three homes that will be available for touring in the next couple of months are the Aria, the Ocean and the Everett.The Everett, the largest of the group, is a single-family, 3 bedroom dwelling meant to comfortably house a family.  With a study, a mud room, a playroom and endless storage, this is the perfect family house. The Ocean is an intergenerational home designed for main-floor living with a master suite on the ground floor.  A second master suite and roof-top deck on the second floor make this a flexible house for all different living situations. The Aria, a 2-bedroom single family dwelling with a light footprint, has tons of space and is perfect for a young family.

As these homes go up we will be sharing more about the designs and the thought-process behind the sustainability choices we have made.  We will be sharing our mistakes as well as our successes.  We look forward to an open dialogue as we learn and hope that our efforts will spark new and interesting discussions around sustainable design.

Check back next week for more details on the energy-efficient wall designs being tested at Grow and for general construction updates and progress reports. Let us know if you have any questions, comments or concerns here in the comment section, or onFacebook and Twitter.

The Grow Team