Looking to a Green Future

AS WE MAKE OUR WAY on this planet—building, creating, traveling and living—we’re using up the Earth’s natural resources. As consumers, we’ve gotten the message: We’re vulnerable to the negative consequences of pollution and climate change. In the new century, we’re all seeking eco-friendly ways to conduct our lives.

By finding ways to preserve resources, whether recycling or changing our patterns of consumption, we’re practicing sustainability. When we choose a woodworker who uses veneer to remodel our cabinets instead of solid Brazilian mahogany, we’re making an eco-friendly choice.

This month, as spring arrives with tidings of renewal, San Diego At Home features two San Diegans who have been thinking green for years: interior designer Laura Birns and architect Drew Hubbell. Birns has worked vigorously to adapt green methods to home design. She’s a regular contributor to Icon magazine, where her columns outline how to use nontoxic paints, managed forest woods and energy-saving natural lighting.

Hubbell and his father, James, and their firm, Hubbell & Hubbell Architects, have championed sustainable architecture throughout their careers, using natural lighting, site sustainability and straw bales as a building material.

As the market for green technology matures, businesses are being launched to meet the needs of the eco-conscious. In this issue, new partners Rosalind Haselbeck and Rich Alianelli debut their green-roof business, with its promise of restoring urban habitat and purifying storm-water runoff. And we visit a demonstration house in the Del Sur planned community with the latest in energy and environmentally efficient innovations. We also give ideas for planting with California natives and showcase ecofriendly furniture and accessories.

For the green movement to succeed, we need to practice what we preach at home. It’s time to learn how to mold our behavior so we see results now—and protect biodiversity and ecosystems for future generations. It’s their planet, too.

Thomas Shess
Senior Editor, San Diego At Home
tshess@sandiegomagazine.com

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