Even if you rent your home, the six steps for winterizing are worth doing. They help save the planet… and save you money!

Whether you are a renter like me or own your own home, these simple steps will help you to prepare your home inside and out for these chilly winter months.

Jimmy Prokopeuff, like many Alaskans, needs to replace his outdated wood-frame home, which is ill suited to the rigors of Alaskan weather conditions. The Cascadia Green Building Council, in partnership with the Aleutian Housing Authority, plans to help.

The Living Aleutian Home Design Competition challenges architects and engineers to design a “creative, livable, affordable” three-bedroom, one-bath, single-family home. The home must be between 1,150 and 1,350 square feet and must have a construction budget of $400,000 or less. The challenge may sound simple enough to a seasoned architect or engineer, but there is a catch—the home must be environmentally sound and be able to withstand Alaska’s roughest conditions.

This month’s featured Green Home is an Energy Star-rated, LEED Gold-certified single-family home in Orleans, Massachusetts, with a minimal footprint, exceptional energy-saving features, and thoughtfully designed outdoor living spaces.

The cozy and beloved summer cottage near Cape Cod had been in the English family for two generations. Built in 1958, the little cottage served as a centralized gathering spot for family and friends, even those coming from abroad. Although other homes came and went throughout the years, the little cottage in Orleans was the place that most family members considered home. The location was perfect for relaxing, bird watching, and enjoying the beauty of the outdoors… and it was absolutely perfect for Teresa and Dan English’s full-time residence upon retirement.

Green is here to stay! Here’s what to watch for in the next few months.

With 2011 quickly drawing to a close, it’s time to take out our crystal ball and conjure up the green home trends that will shape our choices in the coming year. Many of these trends will sound very familiar; some have evolved out of economic necessity, while others exist thanks to great advances in technology. Whether you already own a home or plan to build a new one, there’s bound to be at least one trend that appeals to you.

A Bainbridge Island home represents a marriage of modern aesthetics and sustainability.

When Ed and Joanne Ellis decided to build their dream home on Yeomalt Bluff on Bainbridge Island, Washington, their wish list was threefold: they wanted to create a luxurious yet comfortable space, achieve a high level of sustainability, and help to educate the community on the feasibility of building green without sacrificing beauty.

Find out, step by step, how to upcycle a sturdy wooden door into an upholstered floating headboard. Watch {Re}habitat, Rachael Ranney’s online video series on Buildipedia.com’s Go Green channel, to learn how adaptive reuse can add fun and function to your space.

Few furnishings add opulent coziness to your bedroom the way upholstered headboards do, but such pieces come with hefty pricetags. Rachael shows how to make an inexpensive and luxurious upholstered floating headboard with a salvaged wooden door, decorative wood trim, and upholstery materials.

Let Rachael Ranney, host of {Re}habitat, help you to upcycle some humble materials into gifts this holiday season. Here are three ideas for inexpensive gifts you can make in a few hours.

In the past few years I have begun to make almost all of my gifts by hand. Not only has it saved me from fighting feverishly through the madness of the pre-holiday mall crowds, it has kept my bank account in good standing. I also manage to give creative, personal, and thoughtful gifts to all of the people on my list.

Do you know the green building code basics? City and state governments continue to adopt new ordinances that support sustainable building, and the new laws require new ways of doing business.

In recent years, more and more municipalities have been adopting green building codes as a strategy to help them to develop in a more sustainable fashion. Green building codes are issued for the purpose of improving public health, safety, and general welfare. They encourage sustainable construction practices in planning and design, energy efficiency, water efficiency and conservation, environmental quality, material conservation and resource efficiency; improvements in these areas have been shown to reduce negative effects and enhance positive environmental impacts.

Pythagoras Solar undertakes a pilot project to install solar windows on the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago. The project should provide data on the potential use of glass facades to collect solar energy.

Pythagoras Solar is conducting an experiment on one of the most iconic structures in the world – the Sears Tower, now Willis Tower. Established in 2007, Pythagoras specializes in solar panels for windows, focusing particularly on skyscrapers and other tall buildings. Skyscrapers have little rooftop area to accommodate solar collectors but use an extensive amount of glass use in their facades. These expanses of glass result in astronomical heating and cooling costs. Skyscrapers also contribute to a localized retention of heat known as urban heat island (UHI) effect, and large cities such as Chicago are looking for ways to mitigate that heat retention.

Find out, step by step, how to upcycle an old door into a unique bathroom storage unit. To see Rachael in action, watch {Re}habitat, her upcycling and repurposing video series on Buildipedia’s Go Green channel.

Most bathrooms could benefit from added storage and a splash of color. An old wooden door, some knobs and racks, and a fresh coat of paint will help you to keep your bathroom organized and give it some character. This storage unit is perfect for bathrooms and other small spaces, but it can add functional, funky vertical storage to any room of your house. Join Rachael as she demonstrates how to turn a salvaged wooden door into upcycled bathroom storage.

Creating a multifunctional side table to augment your living room furniture is easier and more affordable than you think. Join {Re}habitat host Rachael Ranney as she turns a vintage suitcase into a useful and chic addition to her living space.

Vintage suitcases are one of my favorite ways to keep clutter hidden and my home organized. Buried deep in the dark corners of my closet and all around my office you will find piles of them. I use old funky suitcases to hide my crafting supplies and photos and to store my out-of-season clothes.