More than just a place to rest your head, home should be a safe haven. But these days, we worry whether the paint on our picket fence is toxic. We fear that our dream house may be spewing waste or simply wasting resources. In need of a little green-spiration, we found four diverse dwellings to highlight. Each of these eco-friendly abodes addresses environmental concerns with elegant, innovative, and livable solutions, proving that sustainability, like charity, can indeed begin at home.

Presidential Preserve

Its eye-catching interior includes a light fixture assembled of discarded plumbing pipes, a backsplash fashioned from recycled cans, wallpaper made of Sunday funnies, and floors crafted from Florida sand and seashells.Ibis House, the University of Miami president’s new home, is green down to its last detail. Completed in August 2012, it recently earned LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.Low-E glass windows block solar heat, a white roof and walls reduce heat load, and roof-installed solar panels heat water. High-efficiency water fixtures, safer paint coatings, nontoxic pest-control products, and green cleaning agents are among its many other eco-friendly features.A few new custom pieces, such as a striking Odegard rug, have been mixed with furnishings recycled from the president’s previous home to conserve University resources.

Ibis House is the final green jewel in the 32-acre crown of Smathers Four Fillies Farm, a sustainably built community for University faculty and administrators located in Miami-Dade County’s Village of Pinecrest. The 31 single-family homes sit on land bequeathed to UM by philanthropist, horticulturist, and longtime UM trustee Frank Smathers Jr., J.D. ’34. He and his wife bought the lush estate in 1967 and named it in honor of their four daughters (thus the “four fillies”).

Four Fillies’ mango grove is “the single most important mango collection in the world,” notes Bruce Greer, chairman of the board of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, which has partnered with UM to maintain and preserve the property’s more than 21 acres of fruit groves and natural hammock.

The community—built on 11 acres, with two-thirds of the parcel left intact—earned the Urban Land Institute’s Woolbright Dream Green Reality Award, which recognizes projects that reduce environmental impact through energy and water efficiency, use of green building materials, and clean indoor air quality.

Keeping Up with the Joneses

Although this one-story may look similar to others in the neighborhood, life is definitely greener on the Jones side of the fence.In 2009, Richard K. Jones, B.Arch. ’91, M.B.A. ’01, and his wife, Dawn Jones, B.B.A. ’90, completed an extensive remodeling project that earned a Platinum rating—the highest obtainable—under the Green Building Council’s LEED certification system. The upgrades also earned the family a tax break from Uncle Sam.

Jones, the associate vice president for facilities design and construction at UM, incorporated into his South Miami residence some of the basic sustainability strategies he’s used in spearheading green facilities at UM such as the LEED-certified Clinical Research Building on the Miller School of Medicine campus.“We looked at almost every aspect of our home, from the air-conditioning system and insulation to the landscaping and finishes,” Jones says.

Improvements included a reflective white roof to keep the house cooler, countertops made of recycled paper, solar tubes, LED lights, drought-resistant landscaping, and much more.

The renovation added 1,100 square feet to the 1,200-square-foot mid-century-style house the couple had purchased 11 years earlier—before their three children were born. Even with nearly twice the living space, says Jones, the family’s annual energy consumption has dropped 73 percent. He estimates that, compared with a traditionally built house of similar size, they save $3,500 a year in energy costs.

Ian McKeown, A.B. ’07, M.S. ’09, sustainability coordinator in UM’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety, applauds the platinum standard Jones has set by taking his work home with him. “He’s willing to make a commitment not only to helping the University be more sustainable, but to his own home and lifestyle,” McKeown says. “Anyone can learn a lesson from this.”

Grid Relief

If James Englehardt has anything to do with it, treated wastewater will be coming soon to a tap near you.But first the environmental engineering professor is perfecting an experimental water treatment process on campus.

Backed by a $2 million National Science Foundation grant, Englehardt is leading an interdisciplinary effort to develop and demonstrate a low-energy, low-emission system for recycling residential wastewater in one of the University Village apartments.

The “Design for Autonomous Net-Zero Water Buildings,” known more informally as the “Zero Water Project,” went online this semester. Currently four students reside in this historic home laboratory. Their apartment’s novel system collects used water from sinks, laundry, showers, the dishwasher, and toilets, and treats it to above drinking water standards with calcium carbonate, natural ozone, hydrogen peroxide, and ethanol. Tested three times daily, the treated water returns to the test community’s taps for all uses but cooking and drinking. A rainwater cistern and city source supply those needs.

The project team includes students and faculty from the College of Engineering, School of Architecture, College of Arts and Sciences, and Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy.

Englehardt’s co-principal investigator, Kamal Premaratne, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is developing smart technology to detect risk to the system in real-time.

UM cultural anthropologist Kenny Broad, along with a psychologist and two architects, is assessing potential motivations for adopting this kind of technology. “We’re learning how to explain and present these systems to the public so they can be accepted,” says Englehardt.

Though not yet completely “off the water grid,” this preliminary demo is intended to point the way toward a global model for conserving energy, saving water, and reducing burden on our natural resources.

According to Englehardt, South Florida’s treated wastewater currently meets 87 of the 93 numerical drinking water requirements, but instead of entering a direct potable reuse system like the one in University Village, it gets pumped into the ocean or deep saltwater aquifers. That means it has to be treated again and reconveyed to users at great energy expenditure and expense. Water flowing to and from centralized treatment plants uses about 3 percent of this nation’s total electricity, he notes.

Those resources could be better spent getting rid of pharmaceuticals and chemicals in our water supplies, he contends, adding, “We can learn from ecosystems by treating waste as a resource.”

Eco Park

In 2005 a one-two punch from Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma damaged a 107-room hotel and 12 cottages in Everglades National Park so severely that officials decided to demolish what was left of them. Ever since, visitors have had to pitch tents or use an RV to camp at the park’s southernmost Flamingo section on the bay.

But demand for permanent sleeping facilities remained, says Park Superintendent Dan B. Kimball. “What we heard loud and clear was that there were family traditions based on staying overnight, and people wanted us to return to that tradition,” he adds.

The park took a giant step toward meeting those demands this past Decem-ber, when it unveiled a 200-square-foot eco-tent designed and built by University of Miami architecture students.

The furnished dwelling, which had a waiting list of 80 by its first day, sleeps four comfortably for $16 per night. It boasts bamboo and recycled-plastic flooring; screening that captures breezes yet keeps mosquitoes out; and a roof fashioned from a durable hand-sewn fabric.

Rocco Ceo, the School of Architecture professor who co-teaches the semester-long Design Build Studio, says the idea was to give the park “something that would minimally impact the landscape while supporting the park’s mission and promoting environmental awareness.”

One of the materials used, for example, is heat-treated pine, which lasts longer than its chemically treated counterpart.

Throughout the 2012 spring semester, 11 fifth-year students designed, constructed, and tested the eco-tent on UM’s Coral Gables campus. They disassembled the finished product for transportation to Everglades National Park. A generous grant from the South Florida National Parks Trust funded the project.

Violet Battat, B.Arch. ’12, who took the lead finding a suitable roof fabric, decided on a strong solution-dyed polymer yarn material intended to withstand water, mildew, and even vultures. Michael Galea, B.Arch. ’12, made sure the custom hardware connected the eco-tent’s poles properly. “The biggest challenge was measuring 50 times and cutting once because we had one chance to get everything correct,” he says.

Pleased with UM’s prototype, park officials would like to build 20 more. Says Kimball: “To team up with the University of Miami and young students who came up with something that’s innovative and functional and also beautiful is fabulous for the park.”

The eco-tent is open from mid-November to mid-April.