EcoFLATS, Net-Zero Apartment Living

There is no lack of imagination in the sustainable development community in Portland, Oregon, but when Doug Shapiro and Jean-Pierre Veillet teamed up, a new type of ‘everyman housing’ was the result. In about a year the partners expect to have built a commercial mixed use development that includes a net-zero apartment building they can market to those who desire to reduce their personal carbon footprint.

Net-zero is used to describe the result in which a building’s energy use is equal to the amount that is produced on site from renewable resources like solar or wind. Because the technology exists to create this perfect balance, many governments are aggressively making plans to impose net zero requirements within a generation. Investors are following this trend and, based on projects like this one, many will decide to invest in buildings with net-zero energy technology. And that is exactly the point. The ecoFLATS partners insist a driving force behind their motivation to build this development has always been the concept that it would provide both educational benefits and a prototype that would support similar projects.

via greenlandlady.com

IMAGE: ecoflatspdx.com