Green & Healthy Maine Homes Magazine

09/09/2025

☀️Thinking about solar, but not sure if you have enough space on your roof? Consider a shed with solar instead—and gain some additional storage in your yard!

Maine Solar Sheds () builds and delivers custom and prefabricated storage sheds with installed solar arrays, ready to be hooked into the grid, to homes and businesses across Maine.

Pictured: The St. John model by Maine Solar Sheds.

This post is part of a series about our partners.

09/03/2025

We're thrilled to announce Maine's first Green Home + Design Awards—a new program celebrating excellence in sustainable, high-performance residential design and construction across the state.

The awards honor projects that minimize energy use, reduce embodied carbon, promote occupant health, and prioritize sustainability in both home and landscape.

Award categories:

• New build
• Addition, remodel, or adaptive reuse
• DIY or nonprofessional design/build
• ADUs or small project (under 1,000sf)
• Materials or methods innovation
• Sustainable landscape

Who should apply?

We welcome entries from builders, designers, architects, landscape artists, homeowners and any creatives with projects that fall into the categories listed above to apply.

Applications are due: September 23rd, 11:59EST

Learn more and apply at the link below!

The premiere Green Home + Design Awards will take place on November 5, 2025 as part of the first annual Building Science Week in Maine. Presented by Green & Healthy Maine HOMES magazine, the Green Home + Design Awards seek to recognize outstanding contributions in sustainable, high-performance resid...

09/03/2025

Happy September! Here are some events happening around Maine this month. Share with a friend interested in sustainable building or landscaping! 🏡

08/21/2025

A few sobering facts about lawns in the United States:

• American lawn covers 30–40 million acres, or 2% of U.S. land.

• Gas-powered lawn mowers contribute to 5% of air pollution annually nationwide.

• Collectively, homeowners spend billions of dollars annually and use ten times the number of pesticides and fertilizers per acre on lawns as farmers do on crops.

• Overapplication of nitrogen-based fertilizers run off and become a major source of water pollution, harming waterways and wildlife.

• 30–60% of urban fresh water is used to sustain lawns. Lawns use more irrigation water than any agricultural “crop” grown in the United States.

• Lawns are biodiversity deserts which contribute to a vanishing insect population.

How can homeowners help? Learn about sustainable landscaping (and shrinking your lawn!) through an interview with at the link in bio.

08/17/2025

“The site evoked my love of fire towers,” she says, and so she placed a square room on the second level at a sharp angle to the rest of the roof. “While the house is oriented north-south, the square in the center—which references a fire tower—is rotated to look more directly at Katahdin, which is north but slightly off to the west.”��

Learn more about this passive house project in Millinocket at greenmainehomes.com/blog/northern-comfort

08/12/2025

Are EVs quantifiably better for the environment? If so, under what circumstances and for how long? We looked into the research, and these numbers from our What’s Your Number? series are about the various ways people have quantified the question.

Check out greenmainehomes.com/blog/putting-evs-to-the-test to learn more!

Article by Dan Kolbert Kolbert Building

08/08/2025

This is a home built with a fully insulated concrete block system designed and manufactured in Maine by Genest Concrete, a family-owned and operated Maine business since 1927.

Their low-carbon concrete formula, G-mix®, uses at least 5% recycled materials and 50% less cement than traditional concrete blocks. G-mix® was developed using proven methods of CO2 reduction with quantifiable, verifiable results. The environmental impact of G-mix® has been third-party tested and ASTM-verified, and the Global Warming Potential of G-mix® products is among the lowest in the industry.

Read more about Genest Concrete and their contributions to the green building industry in Maine at greenmainehomes.com/comfort-block

This post is part of a series about our partners.

08/05/2025

Maine homes are more likely to have radon problems than those in many other areas of the country. Here, one of every three Maine homes likely has radon above EPA minimum action levels. In Cumberland County, that number increases to two of every three Maine homes. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers and the second-leading cause of lung cancer among the general population.

There’s only one way to know if you have a radon problem in your home, and that is to test it.

These simple graphics explain how radon mitigation systems work and what they will look like in your home.

Full article featuring Maine Indoor Air Quality Council at greenmainehomes.com/blog/demystifying-radon-mitigation-systems

08/01/2025

Summer is for home and garden projects, and home and garden events! Here are some events to keep you busy this month, check greenmainehomes.com for more! 🏡

07/29/2025

Pleasant Lake Camp (pictured) was designed by Whitten Architects of Portland and built by R. P. Morrison Builders of Windham. It features Maine-grown Eastern white cedar siding, white pine wallboards and trim, and poplar millwork.

Learn about the multitude of ways to showcase the beauty of wood sourced from Maine in your home, and check out the Maine Wood Guide by Local Wood Works for a comprehensive list of suppliers organized by product category. The guide features an interactive map of 138 sawmills, wood turneries, shingle mills and wood manufacturers.

greenmainehomes.com/blog/sourcing-local-wood

Photos by Jeff Roberts Imaging

07/24/2025

If you’re looking for that “good old-fashioned,” family-owned hardware store—one that you can know and trust, that offers all the supplies, services, and materials you will need—you can find it at Eldredge Lumber & Hardware with locations throughout York County and beyond. These are just a few examples of what they have in store!

This post is part of a series about our partners.