To begin, my environmentally-friendly house would be located in the same general area that my current house is. I live very close to College Avenue in Oakland, CA, which has many shops, food places, convenience stores, moderate weather, is right near the Rockridge BART station, and is 9 miles from my school. Ideally, my house would be LEED certified, like the Center for Environment Studies center at Bishop O'Dowd. The house would be positioned in a way that allows for the maximum amount of daylight to enter it, and it would have solar panels to provide electricity for the rest of the day and night. We would have low flow toilets and showers. A rainwater-harvesting system would be implemented. The water collected would be used in the toilets and to water plants. The cabinets and other furniture in the house would be purchased from previous owners. I would spend a bit of extra money to input an advanced insulation system in the walls and roofs, so no energy would need to be used to heat or cool the house during the different seasons. In my current house, we do not use heat  or air conditioning; it works out fine! Finally, I would buy food from local farmer's markets, Trader Joe's, or Whole Foods (which are all within 1 mile of the house).

Hey Carina! Thanks for such a detailed post! I think living near a commercial or shopping area is a great idea, because you don't have to travel far to get what you need, and thus you reduce your fossil fuel emissions. In terms of your house's position, I suggest a house with a dangling roof off one side of the house facing west. That way, during the middle of the Day, as the Sun rises, the extended roof would provide shade from the intense heat and cool the house naturally. During the evening, as the Sun sets on the west, its rays will be perpendicular to the wall of your house and thus heating it naturally during the cool evening. I learned about this sustainable structure in AP Environmental Science, and how it reduces the need for energy. Do you have low flow toilets and showers currently? Do you think you could install these without having to move to a new, dream house? I find the idea of the rainwater-harvesting super cool! I know they have that at the Center for Environmental Science and Bishop O'Dowd, and it really saves a lot of water, especially since we are in  a drought. Do you think many of your ideal environmentally-friendly aspects of your home can be achieved even within your own current home? What impact do you think buying at farmer's markets has? Thanks for such a though provoking post.

Sebastian, your idea regarding the positioning of an environmentally friendly house is great! It is awesome to hear that you got this idea from a class that you took at Bishop O'Dowd. In regard to your question, I do in fact have low flow toilets and showers in my current house. Not only does this help the environment and contribute to limited water use, but it saves a huge amount of money for my family each month on our water bill! Many of the ideas from my original post came from the design of the CES. As a member of the Sustainability Committee at Bishop O'Dowd, I learned a lot about all of the mechanisms and systems in the CES that give it such an incredible, sustainable character. I hope to implement some of these designs in my current house, and I plan on starting with having my family eliminate the use of a gas heater (we already do not use air conditioning). I believe that even small modifications that we make to achieve a more sustainable household will ultimately have a large impact on our overall carbon footprint in the end.