Green Building and Green Houses (not the garden variety) are terms that we are hearing more and more about these days. Green houses are basically designed to be eco-friendly from the insulation, flooring and paint materials to appliances and landscaping.

Washers and dryers are energy saving (or hang your wet clothes on the line to dry) and faucets are low flow. In flooring, I was surprised to find that bamboo is the environmental hardwood of choice as it is technically not a wood, but a grass yet is a very hard surface and easily replenished. Linoleum is actually made from linen and other natural fibers.

Manufacturers are checking into the viability of milk-based paints as opposed to the paints with carcinogenic chemicals. Kitchen and bath tiles are being made with recycled glass.

And although solar energy conversion is a large initial investment, you will realize the savings each month in lower energy bills.

According to Wikipedia.com, Xeriscaping refers to refers to landscaping in ways that do not require supplemental irrigation and using plants that are appropriate to the area.  The word Xeriscaping was coined by combining xeros (Greek for "dry") with landscape.

I have not come across many truly green houses in the Ithaca area, but do know of a few that have been remodeled as such. I'm sure we'll hear more about this concept in the future.