http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/823 Feel Smart Again Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:55:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/823/comment-page-1#comment-498 David Wed, 02 Aug 2006 23:06:24 +0000 http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/823#comment-498 Thanks for the wonderful tips/links CVF! My wife and I were thinking of buying a little undeveloped plot of land somewhere, someday and building our own home, but I think I'm now convinced otherwise. Maybe we'll make a home out of an old <a href=http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2006/06/16/carollloyd.DTL rel="nofollow">shipping container!</a> Thanks for the wonderful tips/links CVF! My wife and I were thinking of buying a little undeveloped plot of land somewhere, someday and building our own home, but I think I’m now convinced otherwise. Maybe we’ll make a home out of an old shipping container!

]]> http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/823/comment-page-1#comment-494 CVF Wed, 02 Aug 2006 20:33:00 +0000 http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/823#comment-494 David, it's just as the architect says, and in fact you get a MUCH bigger environmental impact by reinvesting in places where we've already built infrastructure than in pristine, LEED-platinum, greenfield (new) development. The savings from transportation and land consumption tend to dwarf everything else. See http://smartgrowth.org and http://epa.gov/smartgrowth for much more. Even the LEED folks, often criticized for focus on materials over other environmental costs, recognize this with the forthcoming LEED-ND system (http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=148). David, it’s just as the architect says, and in fact you get a MUCH bigger environmental impact by reinvesting in places where we’ve already built infrastructure than in pristine, LEED-platinum, greenfield (new) development. The savings from transportation and land consumption tend to dwarf everything else. See http://smartgrowth.org and http://epa.gov/smartgrowth for much more. Even the LEED folks, often criticized for focus on materials over other environmental costs, recognize this with the forthcoming LEED-ND system (http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=148).

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