Celebrities are known for their sprawling mansions and often times the bigger the home, the bigger the carbon footprint. Many A-listers are taking this into account and creating green homes that allow them to live off the grid, incorporate eco-conscious technologies and actively advocate environmentally responsible practices.
Here are four celebrities’ eco houses that are notably environmentally responsible:
The Brazilian model’s eco house.
Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen and her other half, Tom Brady, boast a 22 000 square feet home in Los Angeles that is fitted with the latest and greatest in eco-friendly design and technologies. Bundchen is an active environmentalist and has incorporated green technologies in her home that include solar panels, rainwater recycling systems and energy-efficient appliances and electrics. The estate is massive in size, raising the question of whether or not such a property can truly be green. By incorporating these green technologies, however, Bundchen is making an effort to create an eco house.
Acclaimed television journalist boasts a noteworthy eco house.
In 2008, CNN released a documentary series that was hosted by Lisa Ling, an acclaimed television journalist, called Planet in Peril. Ling took cognisance of the environmental issues that our planet is facing and modelled her Santa Monica home in such a way that it would have a tiny environmental footprint. The eco house is the first carbon-neutral LEED Platinum certified home in the Santa Monica area. Ling and her husband, Dr Paul Song, have a buried water tank that holds close on 19 000 litres of water, over 60 solar panels and have replaced grass with succulents. In addition, this eco house uses passive cooling, has installed LED lighting and zero-VOC paints and finishes.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is not as ditzy as her Seinfeld character, but rather extremely eco-savvy.
The New York Times described Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall’s beachfront bungalow in Monetcito California as “a study in haute green, an earnest beachside do-gooder with movie-star gloss”. Louis-Dreyfus gave the beachfront bungalow an overhaul in green renovation 12 years ago in 2003. It has resulted in a state-of-the-art eco house. Louis-Dreyfus believes that having a second home is an unnecessary excess, so in order to have this luxury they decided to ensure that they were being as environmentally responsible as possible.
In an interview with Natural Garden and Home, Daryl Hannah asks, “Who wants to live in a toxic box?”
Hannah, a popular ‘80s Hollywood actress, is known to be a vigorous environmental activist. She fights for causes that include climate change, animal rights and mountaintop removal mining protests. Hannah has a modest little mountain residence just outside of the ski resort Telluride, in which she incorporates passive and active solar technologies as well as grey water systems, an organic garden and a backup biodiesel generator.
Are you looking to create your own eco house?
You might not have the millions of dollars that Hollywood celebrities have, but you can consider some cost-effective installations to turn your home into an eco house.
A cost-effective solution is to use frosted vinyl decals as your window treatments. The decals maximise the natural lighting in your home, lessening the use of artificial lighting. In addition, they insulate the home, diminishing the need for temperature control appliances. They even protect your family and furniture from UV rays. Glass windows and doors are notorious energy wasters, but by using frosted window vinyl you can save energy and cash.