Recent Posts:

Green Builder Zeta Communities Gets Funding

Michael Kanellos: October 20, 2008, 5:54 PM
Zeta Communities, which wants to build inexpensive, modular homes, has just landed a round of funding and is working on its first prototype, according to chairman Marc Porat. The company has been working on a 17-unit townhome development in San Francisco that it hopes will cost $165 a square foot to build, cheap for around here. Investors include Northpoint Capital. The company is run by Porat's sister Naomi. Entrepreneurs have touted green buildings and building products for the past few years, but the momentum finally seems to be peaking. Michelle Kaufmann Designs a few months ago landed a round of funding, according to sources. SG Blocks showed off a home made from old...

Here Comes the Green Brick

Michael Kanellos: October 20, 2008, 5:36 PM
It's the biggest technological changes in bricks since the Canaanites, according to Marc Porat. CalStar Cement, the somewhat secretive green building products company (which was revealed in this article late last year) will soon start shipping a green brick that requires almost no energy to produce. It is the company's first product, says founder Marc Porat. "Bricks have an enormous energy footprint. [Brickmakers] take clay and burn it," he said during an open house at Foundation Capital. Foundation invested in the company and on Monday showed off some of its portfolio companies as well as its new, exceedingly green office building. You Can't Make Bricks Without Straw! Instead of burning clay, CalStar will...