Environmental approaches

The question has been asked as to what we are doing regarding environmental aspects to this building to make it "green".
The choices really range the whole project. We are using air sourced heat pumps made by Mitsubishi that are good to -17 F in combination to extensive solar exposures with thickened drywall for a heat sink. The south facing wall will be a 14 foot high wall of glass. This brings on other issues like heat loss at night and the possible sheer glare of all that sun. Roof overhangs become critical for shading the interior during the summer. We will have, because I admittedly hedged my bets a little, a small gas space heater on the walkout basement floor 'just in case'. There is no conventional furnace. The building will be extraordinarily tight which drives other choices which basically make the environmental decisions way more personal. For example, as the building will be so tight, off gassing of the typical VOC [volatile organic compounds like 2 common solvents xylene and toluene) becomes a MUCH more real hazard. Hence, we specified low or no voc paints.
The building is earth bermed - much like the one we have now. This eliminates the basement which is a costly piece of a building that typically gets filled with junk. Lighting will be LED lighting almost exclusively.

More later but this will start the discussion!
Matt