And can you make it toxic free? 

A good friend of mine bought some junk of a house in NE (a lower income quadrant of the District of Columbia that is quickly becoming the IT area) two years ago and decided to gut the entire place and rebuild his very own house. Sounds fun, time consuming, and exhausting. It is. In the winter it's really cold and in the summer you have to stand directly in front of the air conditioner to cool down. Needless to say we usually hang out at my house.

Ben and I have been friends for about 5 years. He has slowly come around that non-violent direct action makes change and now I've moved on to the discussion that his new house should be green in design. He gives me the same old excuses that big companies like Kimberly Clark say, "it's too expensive and difficult to go green". I call Bullsh****.

And I'm out to prove it. So is Brad Pitt with Global Green and the New Orleans chapter of Habitat for Humanity by building their Musicians Village pvc-free.

Maybe you're asking yourself, what the hell is a 'green building'? And that's cool. I'm not a building expert or even an environmental expert of any kind (I just work here people).  So I did some research. Here's what I found:

Global Green defines a green building as a building that "saves energy, conserves water, protects natural resources, contributes to a healthy indoor environment, and reduces the building's impact on the community." Makes sense.

Now, how do you that?

My House is Your House is an organization that talks about this. It is a consumer education advocacy campaign that is tied to the award-winning documentary Blue Vinyl (our very own Toxics Campaigner Rick Hind is featured in the movie).

The Healthy Building Network says, "Green design and construction standards, materials policies and operating practices are an opportunity to decrease - and even reverse - the profound impacts of the contemporary building industry on the environment and human health" and is using their influence to help keep green builders true to their mission and stand tall against the toxic industry's bullying ways.

The Natural Resources Defense Council has an entire site dedicated to "Building Green: From Principle to Practice". 

I know this isn't that in depth, but it's a good starting point for you to do some additional research on your own. So there you go. Homework!

Alright Ben, let's do this!  

Holla . . .