How to Go Green

28. TURN SOMETHING OLD INTO SOMETHING GREEN … Rather than build on precious open land, green up an existing home. “It’s the most viable way for green buyers to live in a green space,” says Lisa Hough, a Prudential Fox & Roach realtor in Delaware County who’s the first in the area to specialize in marketing green and easily greenable homes for clients (601 East Baltimore Pike, Media, 610-892-5756; phillygreenrealtor.com). Look for an environmentally responsible contractor, like Philadelphia-based Buckminster Green, which uses renewable woods and energy-efficient windows and doors (862 North Lawrence Street, 484-432-2692; buckminstergreen.com). Or invest in new eco-properties, like Rag Flats, in an old Fishtown factory — the area’s first “zero energy” residences that generate all their electricity through solar panels — or the Robert Venturi-designed townhouse complex Pembroke North in Wayne, slated to open next February with geothermal heating and air-conditioning (Iron Works Way, 610-687-3872; pembrokenorth.com).

29. … OR BUILD NEW, BUT HIRE GREEN Start by checking out the Green Building Council (GBC) database of local green architects (usgbc.org). Look for someone who is LEED-accredited, meaning the GBC, which sets national standards for environmentally responsible and healthy building, qualifies the architect for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Essentially, these people are trained in finding ways to save energy, conserve water and reuse materials while still designing houses you’ll want to live in (and can afford). Most roads lead to Manayunk’s Re:Vision, designer of the area’s first LEED gold-certified home, which generates all its own electricity or the husband-and-wife team at BluPath Design, whose eco-friendly South Philly rowhome includes radiant-heat floors that are FSC-certified hardwood and warm their home more efficiently than central heat (215-467-0885; blupath.us). Then check out the local branch of the GBC, the Delaware Valley Green Building Council (dvgbc.org), for a database of other environmentally astute contractors, designers and retailers. Finally, give Philadelphia University professors Chris Pastore or Rob Fleming a call. They run the Sustainable Design Resource Center in Manayunk and can help you assess a contractor’s green credentials, offer lots of advice about how to greenify your new home, or put a model of your to-be-built home in their super-cool heliodon, which analyzes the best way to situate the house for optimal sun, shade and breeze (4145 Station Street, 215-951-2745; philau.edu/edi).

30. … OR DECONSTRUCT When Los Angeles transplant Ari Barkan decided to tear down an abandoned Spring Garden Street office building to build his new green home, he didn’t just fire up a bulldozer. He called Construction Waste Management, which hauled off the rubble — including drywall, wood and metal — to be recycled (215-333-5077; cwmanagement.net). He also brought in Baltimore-based Second Chance, which salvages fixtures and doors to sell in its Baltimore showrooms (1645 Warner Street, 410-385-1101; secondchanceinc.org), and got a tax write-off, since Second Chance is a charity that trains low-income local residents to do the work. (Second Chance is opening a Philadelphia showroom in the fall.) Local deconstruction company American Soil has lately been pulling apart the Divine Lorraine Hotel on Broad Street, and sells its found treasures at its shop, Provenance (1610 Fairmount Avenue, 215-236-6677; americansoil.net).

31. … OR MOVE TO MOUNT AIRY. In December, this hamlet was named one of the 10 best eco-neighborhoods in the country by Natural Home magazine because of its proximity to the Morris Arboretum, access to the R7 line into Center City, active environmental groups like the Mt. Airy Greening Network (mtairygreening.net), and the ever-popular Weavers Way Co-Op, so successful that it actually returned $100,000 last year to its members (559 Carpenter Lane, 215-843-2350; weaversway.coop).