Excess shipping containers are a big problem — literally. According to Jason Blevins of the Denver Post, there are 34.5 million of them in the world. Shipping companies use each one for a decade or two, then the hulking steel boxes are destined to spend eternity in a landfill.
But more people are starting to rethink what these containers could be used for, including Rhino Cubed, founded by businesswoman Jan Burton and Sam Austin, an architect who specializes in using reclaimed materials. Launched on Earth Day in Louisville, Colorado, Rhino Cubed builds small, artful homes out of discarded shipping containers.
The company offers three models of 160-square foot shipping container homes, including a $60,000 deluxe version that contains art and metalwork and two less expensive styles with added flooring, doors, and walls. Environmentally-friendly aspects of the tiny houses include solar panels that generate energy for a refrigerator and a water tank to catch rainwater.
“We really wanted to create something that would work off-the-grid,” Burton told the Denver Post. “I like to think we can preserve Mother Nature while still living in the middle of it.”
Another Colorado project making use of old shipping containers is the 25th & Larimer building, which opened in Denver last November. The development was created out of 29 repurposed steel shipping containers, and its first tenant was Topo Designs, a company known for its rugged rucksacks and backpacks that are manufactured in the Rocky Mountain state to ensure factory worker safety. Jedd Rose of Topo Designs told Ricardo Baca of the Denver Post, “It fits within our ethos, because it’s simple. Shipping containers are already out there. You can reuse them. They’re modular. It’s such a great idea.”
With shipping container projects recently built everywhere from London to Las Vegas, it sounds like the global backlog of these steel boxes is starting to ease.
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Tag: green building
Meet the Georgians Putting Energy-Efficient Roofs Over Injured Vets’ Heads
Hardwood floors appeal to many homeowners. They’re attractive, durable, and easy to clean. But for wounded veterans, hardwood floors are often a necessity.
That’s because the smooth surface of hardwood floors makes getting around in a wheelchair less cumbersome. So in Calhoun, Georgia, an army of handymen is providing its services free of charge to injured veterans. Nine thousand employees of Mohawk Flooring in northern Georgia will work — free of charge — on homes that Building for America’s Bravest is custom designing for wounded veterans.
Building for America’s Bravest is a project sponsored by the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a non-profit formed after 9-11 to honor Siller, a 34-year-old firefighter and father of five who died trying to save people in the World Trade Center. Its goal: To build 50 custom “Smart Homes” for servicemen and women across the country who are severely disabled and to do it in an energy-efficient way — all while making use of the latest adaptive technologies, such as automated lighting, wider doors to accommodate wheelchairs, and iPad-controllable heating systems.
One recipient of a smart home is Corporal Todd Love, whose house is now under construction in Georgia. Love lost three limbs (both legs and one arm) when he stepped on an IED in Afghanistan in 2010. He’s appreciative of the work that the volunteers are putting into building his house: “You can provide a great service for your country without being in the military of being a firefighter or police officer,” he told Kimberly Barbour of WRCB. “[I’m] Looking forward to getting a home and one that’s accessible and hopefully I’ll have it for the rest of my life.”
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How Straw Bales Helped Solve an Indian Reservation’s Desperate Need for Homes
On South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, 4,000 Oglala Sioux families are in desperate need of homes, and now several groups are working together to solve this problem in an environmentally-friendly way. The Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation has teamed up with the University of Colorado’s Native American Sustainable Housing Initiative to build four prototype houses. South Dakota college students are helping to build homes insulated with straw bales or packed-earth blocks, with radiant floor heating that should save its future inhabitants money, as well as a shallow foundation that’s more energy-efficient than the drafty basements usually found on the reservation. They plan to build 100 such homes, and fulfill the families’ energy needs through solar panels and other energy-saving techniques.
Nick Tilsen, the executive director of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation told Nate Seltenrich of High Country News, “We’re trying to build a net-zero affordable house. We’re looking for these 34 acres to be almost like a laboratory for Indian Country, for Pine Ridge, and for the country when it comes to sustainable communities.”
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The Amazing New Way You’ll Be Able to Charge Your Phone Outside
Spending time outside is good. Reading and working outside is double good. This solar-powered picnic table has outlets so you can charge your phone or tablet while you enjoy the fresh air. And there’s a little shade too. This is one of those great ideas that is possible now that solar panels are becoming lighter, smaller, and more affordable. It opens up new possibilities for people to enjoy being outside and in remote places without needing the grid.
Treehugger’s Nirvana Opens in Washington State
If your idea of paradise is a close-knit, carbon neutral, bike-sharing community, I’ve got a deal for you. A new planned community on Bainbridge Island, Washington called Grow Community has it all built in from the get-go.There are apartments and single-family homes, community gardens, and all the pleasures of Seattle just a short ferry ride away—even a community car-sharing program. Of course, most of us live in places that weren’t built green from the ground up, but Grow Community gives us a working model of what’s possible with time, knowledge and intention. Every town can be a little greener in ways that add up to big quality-of-life improvements. If you like what you see, check out the One Planet Living program that helped shape Grow Community.