We live in a world in which resources to sustain human life are rapidly diminishing. Planetary warming hastened by the impact of humans' large and growing carbon footprint threatens to leave our children a planet unrecognizable to our ancestors.  The challenge we are faced with is how to live sustainably, meeting present needs by using resources in ways that protect the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Shelter accounts for the use of nearly 40% of all the world’s resources, and by changing the way we construct, remodel, and operate our dwellings we can slow down climate change, feed and house a larger population and buy some time to figure out how to adapt to a changing world.

Live Green, Live Smart believes that while we might not be able to get Detroit to change the way cars are made or driven, get big industry to use less energy or get our governments to legislate responsible carbon output, we can influence builders and homeowners to be green and sustainable and push down the ability to better manage our environment to a more personal level. 

Live Green, Live Smart's Mission Statement
Live Green, Live Smart is a social business enterprise dedicated to creating social value in a significant and sustainable manner. Our organization is focused on green construction research and development and the education of consumers, organizations and tradespeople in the art of green building sciences, giving them the information, tools and confidence to build or remodel in a sustainable manner. 

Through these efforts we will promote the reduction of the embodied energy generated by construction practices and long-term use of homes, help reduce the carbon footprint generated by homes and improve the quality of water and air in our homes and cities while enhancing home occupants' well-being through the way they live in and maintain their homes and their land. 

 
Live Green, Live Smart and the Sustainability Movement
Live Green, Live Smart's The Sustainable House is a demonstration of the organization's commitment to the principle that current needs can be met in ways that do not compromise the ability of others to meet their needs in the future.  While some housing is appropriately demolished and replaced, our House is a thorough rehab of a typical post-war rambler, one of the most pervasive building styles built in American over the past 50 years. The Sustainable House and the 50,000 Green Homes Initiative provide laboratories in which prospective green homeowners and builders can explore and share more sustainable options for shelters as part of the Live Green, Live Smart Community.

Additional projects in the coming months include the Live Green, Live Smart Institute to be held as a debriefing on The Sustainable House project; a green certification opportunity for builders and homeowners in conjunction with Saint Paul College; and additional affordable green home rehabilitation demonstrations.

Why a Social Business Enterprise?
A social business enterprise is designed to generate social improvement while engaged in profitable activities.  Well-run enterprises, smoothly managed, efficient, and goal oriented, social business enterprises reinvest their profits in the operations and social goals of the organization. This form of capitalism that does not reward the capitalist in the traditional method of maximizing profit without regard to collateral results. Investors in such enterprises can help create social change and eventually recover their initial funds for further social investment or for other uses. 

An investor in a social business enterprise may be paid back their original investment when the organization becomes profitable or they may let it ride as equity. The business uses this capital to develop a sustainable business model that does not require constant donations or expensive business loans to grow and promote a socially responsible agenda.

An example of a social-business is Grameen Bank which promotes micro grants and micro credits, helping poor people escape poverty by founding small businesses of their own, and the traditionally investor-supported Frances Groupe Danone (Grameen Danone) which sells fortified yogurt produced by small farmers and  local cooperatives to sell to the families of children in third world countries for pennies.

The founder of the Grameen Banks, Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, has written a great book about social business, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. Today, major universities including Harvard offer business courses on Social Business Enterprise through their MBA programs. 

Live Green, Live Smart's Ventures

In-House

• Development of a book about the Sustainable House;
• Development of a film and TV series on green building;
• Consulting with Real Estate and Builders on Sustainable Construction;
• Consulting business on Sustainable Construction and the Green movement;
• Primary and Secondary Research in Green Building Sciences with resulting data provided for free distribution to organizations, companies and individuals;
• Remodeled as a demonstration project a 1948 Home (achieved LEED Platinum Certification and Minnesota Green Star Gold Certification);
• Review and planning of a second green and affordable remodel project;
• Management of the Live Green, Live Smart Web Site (informational database on green construction and social network site).
  

Joint Ventures

• Saint Paul College Customized Training and Consulting, a division of Saint Paul College, developing in partnership green builder training courses.

• Franchise Development Group, development of a Green Building and Remodeling Franchise
  

How to Find Us