Welcome to the website of Florida's Showcase Green Envirohome
(FSGE™) - only one (1) hour from Disney World.
Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne destroyed FSGE’s original
structure in 2004 displacing a single family - our family.
Eleven months later in 2005 Hurricane Katrina annihilated
two more homes that displaced the other side of our family.
The result was a project of passion, namely FSGE. An
educational awareness, “true green” project designed to
set the most stringent global green building and green
living standards to date, FSGE plans to help the world
mitigate the affects of myriad natural disasters, obviate
the need for filing an insurance claim, and lower insurance,
energy, water and maintenance costs, all the while
considering the health of the human body and the
sustainability of the planet both now and for our future. By
doing so, FSGE is emerging as the true green builders and
consultants worldwide.
Built to keep giving shelter and water under the most
extreme conditions that nature can offer, and while using
less energy and requiring less maintenance, FSGE is being
rebuilt in Indialantic, Florida with the “best of the best”
green building and green living technologies as a two-story,
3292 sq.ft. “Near Zero-Loss Home™”, “Near Zero-Energy
Home”, "Near Zero-Runoff Home™", and “Near
Zero-Maintenance Home™”. These technologies include
leading edge building envelope, disaster recovery, solar,
wind, stormwater management, "greenroof", indoor air
quality, occupants' health, and other green innovations
collectively providing hurricane, tornado, flood, fire,
mold, termite, impact, sound, and even earthquake
resistance.
FSGE has been featured in USA TODAY and touted on FOX News
as “The Greenest House In The World”. The
first-of-its-kind, “Affordable & Rewardable™”true
green home and live residential touring facility,
FSGE via one year of scheduled walkthroughs will be open to
the public at no charge. The purpose will be to demonstrate
the best building and living choices and practices available
today, helping people:
- See monitored "proof of performance" data from a live test site with several occupants
- Save money
- Improve health (65% or more of our time is spent indoors!)
- Mitigate, if not eliminate, potential catastrophe from natural disasters
- Conserve precious natural resources
What is “green”? Any building that is
ecologically friendly in the following areas:
- Ability to Withstand Natural Disasters
- Energy Efficiency, Performance, & Management
- Water Efficiency, Quality & Management
- Durability
- Ease of Operation, Maintenance & Education
- Indoor Air Quality & Occupants' Comfort
- Occupants’ Health – Inside Building & on Property
- Tenant Welfare - Tenant Health inside Building & on Property
- Sustainability
- Lot Design, Preparation & Low-Impact Development
- Natural Resource Efficiency - Waste Reduction & Recycling
- Minimal Emissions into Air & Minimal Effluents/Runoff into Sewerage/Water Bodies
- Minimum Global Impact
- Environmental Awareness & Management
Artist's Concept
Located only a few blocks from the Atlantic Ocean on the
central part of Florida’s East Coast, FSGE is in a coastal
community that suffered great damage from three hurricanes
in 2004. To ensure stronger, safer and greener construction,
FSGE has partnered with more than 4 dozen, public,
quasi-public and private sector entities, including the
U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Project. FSGE
plans to meet or exceed 12 sets of
green building guidelines
and obtain 8 certifications, including Platinum LEED and
Fortified…for safer living. To fill in the gaps, FSGE is
currently creating its own green living guidelines, namely
Health Gems Occupants' Environment™. Also, EPA WaterSense,
the new, sister program to EPA Energy Star, as well as the
DOE are both considering FSGE as a test site for water
conservation and a new wind technology, respectively.
University of Central Florida (UCF), the sixth largest
university in the U.S., was the first in the world to
identify the potential pollution mass in stormwater.
Consequently there is now law in the U.S. limiting pollution
to our water bodies, both surface water and groundwater.
However, residential runoff still accounts for the largest,
uncontrolled source of pollution in the U.S., especially in
areas with larger annual rainfall volumes. Using results of
research from UCF Stormwater Management Academy and assisted
by a grant from the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection, Mark Baker, LLC, builder of FSGE, constructed
the world’s first residential “greenroof stormwater
treatment system” as part of FSGE using UCF’s patented
greenroof media coupled with advanced hurricane mitigation
features. This will be one of the key features of FSGE as a
Near Zero-Runoff Home™.
In addition to FSGE’s greenroof stormwater treatment
system, FSGE plans to showcase such innovations as patented
SIP steel-reinforced exterior walls, a hurricane technology
rendering stronger, cheaper, faster and healthier
construction than both concrete block and stick and frame
when considering energy efficiency and reduced construction
labor (SIPs can lower labor costs by as much as 55%); water
and energy usage monitoring systems; a global-first "off
grid" all-DC solar air conditioner; a state-of-the-art wind
generator apparently 1/3 the cost of solar and designed to
supplement the home’s energy; and a solar water heater that
can produce hot water year-round, even on a cloudy day.
This site is currently under construction. Please check
back frequently for updates.
