Sheridan Coakley, owner of the London-based furnishings purveyor SCP, uses his circa-1970s home as a testing ground for the furnishings he carries in his company’s inventory. In the foreground, a Balzac lounge chair by Matthew Hilton is draped with a Donna Wilson blanket.

Angela Brooks and son Calder revel in the benefits of free solar energy, cheerfully opening the living room’s big glass doors when it’s time to play.

Power Pod Convenience and functionality blend into elegant design with Coalesse’s PowerPod. Designed by Scott Wilson and MINIMAL, PowerPod delivers two functions in one. When needed, the PowerPod houses six power outlets with built-in surge-suppression. When not needed, the outlet is converted to a sleek pencil organizer and accessory tray. Energy-saving on/off switch reduces vampire power consumption.

In the open-plan living and dining room, a dramatically sloped roofline allows for generous clerestory windows.

Keep the Home Fires Burning Using wood for heat and energy keeps the Wadhams’ environmental footprint small and helps avoid the use of coal- or nuclear-powered electricity. Come winter, the couple relies on an Esse wood-burning stove for cooking, heating, and feeding a set of small radiators. In summer, they use the stove’s electric component, which is powered by solar energy.

On the hill behind the house, a wind-powered well brings water from a 150-foot-deep hole to the surface. That water then flows to the home as needed with gravity's helping hand.

Power House High This structural reboot of a former power plant now has a much different purpose. Another post-industrial, LEED Platinum-certified showpiece, this century-old structure, which once housed rows of massive coal burners that provided all the power for Sears, Roebuck & Company's 55-acre corporate headquarters (as well as the air pressure for the pnuematic mail tubes), now boasts a pair of charter schools.

Hilton’s rounded-form Balzac collection, which debuted in the early 1990s, continues to be a bestseller.

Louise Jenkins, left, chats with her daughter, Freya, who sits on a powder-coated Slatted bar stool by Jasper Morrison manufactured in Lancashire.

The bottom floor contains the kitchen and the dining area; the lounge is upstairs. The cabinets are from Ikea, as are the table and chairs, and the child’s Tripp Trapp chair is from Stokke.

When planning regulations limited what could be built in an English forest, PAD Studio devised a prefab structure that can be moved by crane. “The whole building is based around a steel frame, which provides us with the stability to be able to top-lift it easily,” explains designer Ricky Evans.

Designer Sue Macintosh chose the Farrow & Ball Off-Black paint for the master bedroom.

Le Corbusier and the Power of Photography, published by Thames & Hudson.

Smart Power Strip One of the best things about home automation is that it not only makes life easier for you, but it can save you money and the environment at the same time. A smart power strip is a great way to do this, as it will detect when your appliances are doing nothing but wasting energy, and turn them off.

With expansive EcoHaus Internorm windows, the space feels larger than its 1,400 square feet.

Juxtaposed:Power by Mike and Maakie.

A closer look at "Power Up."

Flower Power by Parrott is a sensor that tells you, via a smartphone app, how much sunlight, moisture, and fertilizer your plants are getting (as well as whether they are too hot or too cold), and suggests adjustments so you can take better care of them.

Cor-Ten steel from a ship building yard clads the new structure, which connects via a glass “bridge” to a rebuilt stone farmhouse containing the bedrooms.

In front, a stone walkway leads a covered entrance.

McAvoy worked with builder Stephen Campbell on structural elements such as the glass floor and walls.

Architect Andrew McAvoy created an earth-sheltered house in Scotland for Gavin and Angelique Robb and children Scarlett and Gus.

The glass balustrade and floor were sourced in Germany and installed by James Aiken. Angelique, the founder of Papillon Designs and Landscaping, clustered plantings around the exterior glass addition.

Lawrence House Floor Plan

Surprisingly, this cozy and partially earth-sheltered family home—which is, according to Gavin, "one step away from Passive House standards"—started life as a series of derelict and semi- derelict farmstead buildings in raw and rural Aberdeenshire, in the hinterland of Scotland’s northeast coast. For the new structure, Grace & Webb fabricated a laser-cut steel balcony.

Entirely off the grid, the house is powered by four photovoltaic panels that supply electricity to lights, small appliances, and water pumps.

The lounge, with maple flooring from an old school in nearby Aberdeen, has a Togo sofa by Michel Ducaroy for Ligne Roset.

Reclaimed oak beams dominate the upstairs lounge, which leads to the guest bedroom.

Niko Power Dock by Most Modest, $135 Designed by San Francisco–based start-up Most Modest, the Niko Power Dock packs a lot of organizational function into one product. Made of solid ash, it includes three grounded power outlets, a slot for keeping your mobile device, and a powder-coated steel pencil cup, and a slot for keeping your mobile device. The concealed storage pocket lid and mesh cord also come available in four different colors each.

Marcus Veerman, founder and CEO of Playgound Ideas, an organization that has given 250,000 children access to playspaces, highlights Freiburg, Germany. "Freiburg is a community in southwest Germany that is striving toward complete sustainability," he writes. "It has a whole suburb built on sustainable principles. It was created out of a movement supported by all levels of government and community." For more ideas, purchase a a copy of Designed for the Future.

Department of Water and Power Building Corner with Fountains, 1965, photographed by Julius Shulman. Photo © J. Paul Getty Trust

Henkel North American Consumer Products Headquarters (Scottsdale, Arizona: 2010) Building in the Sonoran desert doesn’t immediately bring the word “sustainable” to mind. This 348,000-square-foot Scottsdale office space for Henkel, a German consumer goods company, is a stylish rejoinder to that impression. Here, nature is put to work. The roof is covered in a 1.5-acre garden of native plants, with solar panels that power the building’s banks of washers and dryers, a substantial green gesture for a company that makes laundry detergent. And the exterior, designed by CH2M Hill and Will Bruder + Partners, features custom glass etched in a pattern that reduces the intensity of the sunlight and a breathable skylight over the central atrium. Turning down the heat only seems fitting for the makers of a successful line of deodorants. Photo by Henkel

In Surrey, England, OB Architecture married a two-story addition to a historic home with a frameless glazed link. The roof was retiled in slate.

Arango's 1,000-square-foot home in Amherst, Massachusetts is run entirely by solar power. He uses the home as an example in the class he teaches on renewable energy.

A hydraulic machine at the La Bâthie power plant