WHAT’S HAPPENING

• Carcinogenic clock radios, endocrine-disrupting food storage containers, radiation from the WiFi… Some consumers are getting the feeling that home can be a dangerous place. Healthy Dwellings is helping them spot health offenders and remedy the situation (NYTimes.com 5.26.10).
• For a $375 fee, the service will send a building biology consultant to the customer’s home or apartment to assess factors like water and air quality, electromagnetic radiation, moisture intrusion and personal care and cleaning products.
• The approximately 3-hour consultation comes with a written report and a detox plan with simple to complex fixes for the customer to carry out.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• Home, healthy home? There’s a growing consumer suspicion that homes might be contributing to a spectrum of illnesses. In addition to keeping health villains out by avoiding potentially harmful products, vigilant consumers want to know how to kick existing offenders to the curb.
• Health Monitor^SM consumers come in all demos and lifestages, but the home health audit is of particular interest to new parents and pet parents.

RESOURCES

• Healthy Dwellings

WHAT’S HAPPENING

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

RESOURCES

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• An 800-square-foot guesthouse leaves little room for a dishwasher, so Boston-based Moskow Linn Architects came up with a creative solution to dry the dishes.
• The firm built a custom cabinet that combines dish storage and drying functionality. Instead of a solid bottom, the above-counter cabinet has racks that let wet dishes drip onto the stainless steel backsplash and countertop below, which slopes into the sink (FineHomeBuilding.com 10.5.09).
• Dry dishes are free to sit pretty in the cabinet until they’re needed once again.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• Integrating the drying rack into the dish cabinet saves consumers the hassle of shuttling dry dishes to their storage space — no small benefit for mobility-challenged consumers for whom simplicity and practicality are key.
• The concept also offers convenience to small-space chefs whose galleys are too tight for a dishwasher, and old-abode homeowners whose kitchens haven’t been updated.

RESOURCES

• Moskow Linn Architects

Four seasons are the norm for most parts of the U.S. In Southern California, we have a fifth: fire season. There aren’t any exact dates for when it starts or ends, sparking up sometimes as early as June and flickering out late into October.

From my hilltop driveway facing the Sierra Madre mountain range, I’ve had a scarily vivid view of this fire season’s still-blazing Station Fire. As of this writing, it’s burned more than 140,000 acres, the most ever in Los Angeles County (CNN.com 9.3.09).

I won’t have the view much longer. Boxes are piling up as we prepare for a move to downtown L.A. No, it wasn’t the fire that compelled our relocation. We’ve been planning for a while: It’s closer to my wife’s workplace and my daughter’s school. Time to downsize before the empty nest. For this midlifer Latino cultural observer, it’s closer to the acción.

It’s the reverse of typical L.A. mobility. The ideal was to move out from the center, to suburbs inland or along the coast. Or to the quiet cul-de-sacs carved into the foothills, the places now being evacuated with increasing frequency as the region receives less rainfall and fire season stretches out.

We’re either crazy for moving or ahead of the curve. But until urban development is better managed — with developers, policy makers and ecologists in agreement — some people won’t have the option. They’ll be forced out by nature.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• Goal: a $0 home energy bill by 2015. GE believes it’s possible. On July 14, 2009, the company unveiled plans for a Net Zero Energy Home, a suite of products designed to work together to save homeowners from the crippling costs of traditional energy consumption.
• The green-saving systems include ground source heat pumps, photovoltaic panels and supplementary wind power.
• The demand-response appliances that talk to one another through a central Home Energy Manager could come to market as early as 2010, when GE will introduce a line of smart thermostats.
• To help implement smart-grid changes, GE is working with local utility companies on pilot projects worldwide.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• It looks good on paper, but can green gizmos really deliver? Critics point out that energy savings of as much as 80% can already be achieved with low-tech solutions like insulation and orientation (Treehugger.com 7.18.09).
• If anyone can take smart-grid hardware mainstream, it’s GE. While ground-up green construction may prove too pricey, the tech could be used to upgrade millions of existing homes.
• Partnering with utilities will help make GE’s dream a reality, extending its commitment to Ecomagination.

RESOURCES

• GE

I’ve always been a pretty crafty person, but recently a group of Gen X girlfriends and I kicked our at-home arts activities into high gear.

Instead of heading out for happy hour (as we’d been known to do), a rotating cast of crafters now meets weekly at a hostess’s home. Over hours of conversation, we progress through our own projects, which range from quilting to knitting to making photo albums and assorted gifts.

Why the sudden craving to craft? While we all enjoy the creative outlet, the timely key for us and other crafters — novices and veterans alike — is the sense of calm, control and accomplishment artistic projects provide. Call it handmade therapy.

Many consumers are turning to the healing powers of yarn, glue and glitter to find relief from economic anxiety and other ever-present stressors. According to Craft and Hobby Association spokesman Victor Domine, even in the depths of the downturn, “People are crafting more … doctors are recommending it as a major form of stress relief” (New York Times 12.22.08).

It’s an example of consumers’ desire to literally take matters into their own hands to create balance and reward in their lives. As a newly minted quilter, I’m crafting my cure for stress one stitch at a time.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• A team of leading architects is asking Australian McMansion owners to enter the Reincarnated McMansion Project. The winner gets to have his obese abode dismantled … but in its place will stand two new eco-friendly accommodations.
• The project’s mission is to show Aussies an alternative to the existing unsustainable McMansion housing model and urban sprawl.
• The oversized home’s building materials — bricks, wood, windows, hardware, doors, etc. — will be reused to construct two zero-emissions green habitats that the McMansion dontaor gets to keep.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• If seeing is believing, the Reincarnated McMansion Project could bring awareness to the differences between bloated abodes and smaller sustainable spaces. Because while it’s difficult to visualize disparities in energy and materials, an effort like this leaves little to the imagination.

RESOURCES

• Reincarnated McMansion Project

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• Earthaid.net gives consumers a one-stop spot online to see how much juice their homes are using. The new service helps consumers monitor their home’s patterns, then pays them when they save energy.
• Using the motto “Smart for Your Wallet. Smart for the World,” Earth Aid Enterprises also sells Earth Aid Kits for between $75 and $99. The kits include home energy savers such as CFLs, smart power strips and rechargeable batteries.
• Earth Aid, who also have an iPhone application, was the winner of the New Venture Exchange contest at 2009′s Sustainable Brands conference.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• Many wannabe-green consumers are first looking for ways to get a handle on what kind of impact they’re already having on the planet. When products offer both money savings and environmental savings, they’re a tantalizing option for homeowners who want to take control of the household.
• Consumers concerned about truly becoming green are just as worried about their household and overall footprint as they are in the greenness of any few products they buy.

RESOURCES

• Earthaid.net

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• As is the case with many Latinos, Chicago residents are feeling the effects of the ongoing housing bust. But that hasn’t discouraged families from continuing to find ways to own their own home.
• The obstacles are alarming: Lost jobs, lack of affordable housing and tight credit. But housing experts are observing Latino families — both long-time residents and immigrant families alike — working more hours, spending less and pooling resources to buy multi-generational or multi-family homes.
• What’s driving this goal? Says Rubén D. Feliciano, housing policy analyst for Chicago’s Latino Policy Forum: “When you come to this country, you want to have your own home, you want to raise your family there, you want to set roots in that community” (News.Medill.Northwestern.edu 5.14.09).

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• The conventional wisdom has been that buying a home is the best thing a family can do. Now, job insecurity, unavailable credit and fear are factors plaguing potential homeowners’ minds. The aspirational aspect of the Latino family dynamic, however, together with a sense of extended family unity, can prevail when financial obstacles present themselves.
• Financial brands can benefit by factually presenting to Latinos the way to achieve the dream.

RESOURCES

• Latino Policy Forum

• Hispanic Housing Development Corporation

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• “The housing bubble popped, so why are my property taxes acting like it’s 2006?” Many consumers are asking themselves this, and beginning the complex and sometimes soul-killing process of negotiating with their local tax boards to have their assessed home values — and therefore their property taxes — brought into line with the new reality.
• Launched at the Finovate Startup 09 conference, LowerMyAssessment.com helps consumers in 10 states find out if their assessed values reflect what’s happened in the economy, and whether they should file for a petition to lower their taxes.
• The website conducts a free review of assessed value versus fair market value. When these are out of whack, the company will perform an authoritative assessment that is a valid report which can be filed with tax review boards.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• Having a property assessed in-person can cost more than $500. At $150, LowerMyAssessment.com is a savvy and convenient way to get the ball rolling for homeowners who want their property taxes to reflect the change in market value of their homes.
• This is another great example of how consumers have many new tools at their disposal during the first Web 2.0 enabled recession.

RESOURCES

• LowerMyAssessment.com

• Finovate Startup 09