For people looking for more ways of living green and creating more eco-friendly habits, the Ecopod has arrived.  For all the talk about green home manufacturers, I think the concept of converting shipping containers into homes is fantastic.  You’ve got no idea how badly I want to live in one.

The units start at $40,000 and are fully customizable, should your budget be flexible.  The concept of the Ecopod is much more popular in Belgium, Canada and other cool places.  The photo above illustrates how creative one can become in designing one of these.  They would make a great office, guest house, home for you and the family or anything else you can imagine.

Though recycling is a given, the Ecopod and other units like it help us think bigger and more long term.  It’s a way for those of you that like to think that you’re green to walk the walk.   Let’s be honest, actually being eco-friendly is not simply recycling your Smart Water bottle when you remember to.  It’s not using disposable chopsticks, choosing to use your own bottle for water, bringing your own to-go box to the restaurant with you, using a re-usable wooden coffee stirrer, bringing your own cotton bags to the super market, weening yourself off of coal energy, riding your bike more and leaving your car in the driveway.

(catches breath after impromptu diatribe)

Overall, I love this and all products like this.  Keep in mind that these folks are not the only ones manufacturing units like this, but they are in Canada and we love Canadians.  You should too.

I know the drill.  Your office is so cool because they let you wear aloha shirts on Friday.  News flash:  Your office just got pwned by The Box Office Project.  Constructed of 32 corrugated steel shipping containers, the Box Office Project in Rhode Island, USA is slated to be fully completed by early 2010.  It may forever change how we view our collective office existence.

You know that I love all things eco-friendly, green and anything that involves the reuse of shipping containers.  When I caught wind of this 3-story 10,000-sq/ft building designed by Peter Gill Case at Truth Box, Inc, I wanted to know the details.  What I wouldn’t give to have our offices housed in a container that had a rich history of shipping crappy plastic products from Pusan to Peru.

The inspiration for this green project was a combination of the Container City residences in London and the Keetowen Tempo Housing in Amsterdam.  The good news is that this gutsy project has already secured pre-leases for 4 units inside the complex.

The Box Office Project is about as eco-minded as it gets.  Tenants that are energy efficient may even get a price break if they remember to turn off the lights. Case plans to offer “green leases” that vary in price based on the amount of power tenants consume.  Sweet!

Case and his cronies claim that the Box Office Project is cheaper to build than new construction.  It will cost an estimated $1.8 million. On top of that, the building will also be more energy efficient, using 25% less energy than traditional/conventional structures.  They’ll achieve this by heating and cooling from decentralized air-to-air heat pumps.  And for the green thumbs out there, you’ll be happy to note that they will catch excess rainwater with the use of bioswales or “rain gardens” to feed plant life.

It’s official.  I love this commercial real estate project.  I suspect that Truth Box, along with its Canadian, British and Belgium peers, are set to be the forefathers of reusing industrial and global commerce equipment.  Job well done!