How I Made My "Bad Ass" Green Home Inexpensively

Robert Fortunato is the President of ForStrategy Consulting, and Owner/Builder of the Green Idea House in Hermosa Beach. He is a trusted advisor to businesses, developers and non-profits, helping them scale solutions that are less costly and better for our health, lifestyle, economy and the environment.

In 2012 Robert designed and general contracted the multiple award winning Green Idea House, one of the first affordable, net zero energy, zero carbon case study houses built with standard construction materials and off-the-shelf technologies, which I got to photograph and writing about in my blog.

His and his wife’s journey began when his son was born and the family needed more space to their existing home they lived.  They took the ideas and inspiration from their travel around the world from what they saw how different cultures managed energy, waster, water and toxicity, and wanted to build their house to be better for health, lifestyle, economy and the environment; hence the genesis of “Green Idea House.” 

As an economist, Robert thought, “If we use less water, waster, energy and materials, it should actually cost less to build and manage over time.”

He had to find people who were willing to do things differently; from architect (whom he hired because of his credentials for green building design but in the end fired) to contractors who kept going back to their default process.  He understood that most of them were operating on the paradigm that “repetition leads to profitability” while he was trying to do it differently that could save money if they were open to it. 

So is it possible to build green to generate profit?

Robert and I have a discussion about how that would be possible.