The biggest impediment to nationwide adoption of sustainable housing practices is neither desire (We can all sense the palpable national shift towards green living), nor financing (Study after study has shown the increased construction cost pays for itself), but rather, it is the simple lack of availability of materials and knowledge. Fortunately, there may be a solution. New Home Green Depot and Learning Center may offer one of the most encouraging solutions I have seen yet.
New Home Green Depot and Learning Center, “a new superstore answering the demand for everything green,” is set to open 9 superstore/showrooms this year throughout the Bay Area. The concept is exactly what the green building community needs. Not only will the stores feature enormous showrooms on scale with Best Buy and other huge retailers offering the best and newest in green building materials, supplies, and technology, they will also be centers of green building education, construction, and finance:
“The Company subscribes to the multi-service business model by also providing sustainability counseling, contracting, project management, engineering, architecture and building desing with a LEED accredited green team as well as in-house financing.”
If each of these services proves viable, New Home will provide one-stop shopping for anyone’s green building needs and break down the two major barriers to a national sustainable building revolution. People are sold on the concept of sustainable building, New Home and other stores with similar concepts are needed to provide the means.
Unfortunately, I’ve had a difficult time getting recent updates on the stores development. The website for the online store is clearly under construction, although its offerings look promising, and I can’t find word on the development of the first store opened in San Rafael, CA. I will be interested to see if the idea proves to be as promising as it seems.
