Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi have scooped up a $10 million horse ranch way outside Los Angeles in Westlake Village, California. The pair have long expressed interest in one day retiring from the hustle and bustle and just enjoying the simple life. “It’s our dream that we’ll end up in a sweet country town on a farm,” Portia said back in March. “I love horses and riding and love animals and Ellen loves animals. It would be lovely for us. It’s what we’re going to do when we’re not working anymore.”

The 26-acre ranch, which was used as the quarantine site for foreign horses during the 2000 Olympics, features numerous residences including a single story, 10-room Spanish hacienda style main house that measures 6,329 square feet and includes 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms.

According to ShelterPop, back in 2005, Ellen gave Portia a gray gelding named Jones and Portia gave Ellen a quarter horse named Puff, both of which are probably now housed in the deluxe stable complex of their new ranch. We’ve no doubt that this ranch is a dream retreat for the couple — though we wouldn’t be surprised if this latest purchase is just a stepping stone to even bigger things down the road. According to Berg Properties, Ellen “has bought and sold more southern California properties in the last 10 years than virtually any other Hollywood celebrity.” Who knew?

Satellite view of the property available here.

This is probably the largest off-grid home I’ve ever heard of — and it can all be yours for a cool $11 million.

Larry Hagman, star of such shows as Dallas and I Dream of Genie, is looking to downsize from his current 43-acre spread to something a bit more manageable in the L.A. area. The 78-year-old has long been a advocate of the renewable energy scene; way before it was the “hip” thing to do. “We’ve got to do something before we get into an apocalyptic situation,” he told people at a conference in 2007. “People just don’t understand that when the end of affordable energy comes, it’s going to be chaos. What do we do to prevent that?”

To that end, Hagman took his nine-bedroom, 14 1/2 -bathroom Mediterranean-style estate off-grid in 2003, causing his annual electric bill to plummet from $37,000 to $13. From the LA Times,

Sitting behind iron gates, the 18,000-square-foot main house has an open floor plan with walls of sliding glass doors, painted murals, an indoor grotto-style spa and a retractable roof over a 40-foot saltwater lap pool in the grand room, which has accommodated parties of up to 200 people. Glass walls on three sides provide unobstructed views from the bed in the master suite. There are Channel Island, mountain and valley vistas. The compound includes a two-bedroom guesthouse, a separate office, an outside pool connected by streams to two ponds, a private helipad and more than 200 avocado trees.

Incredible, right? To take a look at the listing jump here — or hit the gallery below for more images.

We knew South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were into weaving green themes into story lines, but who knew they were also into doing it with their own homes?

The duo recently opened up their Colorado getaway retreat to Steamboat Today and offered readers a look at where they like to unwind with their families. While the home is clearly massive, it was built by a firm, Trilogy Partners, specializing in sustainable construction and features a variety of green themes we’re happy to see included. Highlights include exterior siding and interior flooring of reclaimed wood, recycled carpeting, high-efficiency boiler systems, energy-efficient insulation and in-floor, and radiant heating that can be shut off in unoccupied zones. The beams supporting the ceilings were reclaimed from a railroad trestle that once spanned the Great Salt Lake.

Unfortunately, as this home probably sits vacant most of the time, its arguably a waste of resources. How much goes into heating and lighting a vacant home? Vacation retreats, especially as large as this one, should not be labeled as green beyond the nature of their construction. After that, they’re yet another excess that’s not helping to reign in human impact on the planet.

On the plus side, Trey and Matt used the same builders for their home in Hawaii, so at least they’re consistent in building green. More pics available over at Steamboat Today.

Leonardo DiCaprio took his Inception co-star Ellen Page to check out the penthouse in Los Angeles’ Evo South condos recently.

Seems like Leo’s in the market for some new digs and took his friend along to check out the space, reportedly worth about $2.1 million.

According to the New York Daily News, the loft-style condos are built with sustainable materials and eco-conscious construction techniques. “He was interacting with current residents and seemed very interested in the building’s eco-friendly and green design elements,” says the insider.

And, in case there’s any confusion, the Daily News also quotes the title of the duo’s film as Oliver’s Arrow,  the fake working title of Inception. The photo above is from the film’s recent teaser.

As Luke mentioned yesterday, Madonna is currently in Malawi for the groundbreaking of her new Academy for Girls school. We’ve been following her efforts to bring a school to the Southern African country ever since she announced the ambitious plans back in May of last year. Today, the 51-year-old planted a Moringa tree, also known as the “miracle tree” for its cure of many diseases, at the construction site of the new academy for girls at Chinkhota village. Joining her was President Bingu wa Mutharika and many hundreds of kids from the various orphanages she supports. To learn more about her work in Malawi, visit her Raising Malawi site here.

Sea Shepherd’s sleek, dark, new apprentice has arrived — and the force is strong with this one. And by force, I mean the two 540 horsepower Cummins Mercruiser biodiesel-fueled engines on-board capable of running circles around the Japanese whaling ships.

And so it begins: Earthrace, one of the fastest powerboats on the planet, has been given a full Sea Shepherd makeover. From additional kevlar skin body armor to undetectable very hard to detect broadband radar, nightvision systems, Iridium openport comms, and a new paint job that actually scatters radar signals and provides additional stealth. If Earthrace was badass before, it’s now firmly somewhere in the ninth circle of hell giving Satan a hard time.

Sea Shepherd’s Operation Waltzing Matilda against the Japanese whaling fleet begins this December. More pics of the new Earthrace below:

We’re used to Brad Pitt’s green building foundation, Make It Right NOLA, revealing some new takes on sustainable design, but a house that floats when it floods? Now that’s something that truly raises the bar for sustainable and functional design in the face of adverse elements!

The home, which is the brainchild of Morphosis Architects and its founder, Thom Mayne, will officially be unveiled tomorrow in a ready to move-in condition for one family displaced by Hurricane Katrina. NPR had a sneak peek interview with Mayne this afternoon and shed a bit more light on how it all works. From the article,

The designers gave the building a chassis, made it out of polystyrene foam and covered it with glass-reinforced concrete. “What does that do? It produces a raft; it floats,” Mayne says. “And it’s thought about as a seat belt. I mean, hopefully it never gets used. But when it gets used, it’s important.” The house is anchored to the ground by two vertical guideposts. At times of flooding, the house moves up the guideposts — up to 12 feet — to prevent it from drifting.

According to the interview, when flooding occurs, the home easily breaks away from things like electric lines, plumbing, etc. so that it can travel up the 12-foot guideposts. It also contains enough batteries to keep everything running inside for up to three days. And, obviously, as this is a Make It Right home, is built using green materials and sustainable design. Check out some concept art of the home below — or visit Make It Right NOLA for more details on the greening effort in the Lower 9th Ward.

Sporting a longer than usual goatee/beard, Brad Pitt took to the podium at the fifth annual Clinton Global Initiative to give an update on his Make It Right foundation’s progress in New Orleans. “I don’t know how we build any other way anywhere else,” Pitt said, addressing the audience in New York. “We can no longer tell ourselves that implementing this technology is too complex a problem because it’s just been proven on this little spot on the map.”

He also received an honor from the US Green Building Council for all the work he has done in expanding awareness on sustainable building — and improving the lives of people in New Orleans.

“‘Make It Right’ has exceeded my expectations,” he added. “Our criteria from the beginning were at odds, to say the least. We demanded that these homes be sustainable, that they have aesthetic qualities … that they be storm resilient and take safety in mind of the families who live there and that they would be affordable.”

While only 13 of the expected 150 homes have been built, Pitt reported that the benefits are already substantial. The average family pays only $35/month for electricity in one of the homes created by Make It Right. Plans are already underway for the next stage of the project — which will include eco-friendly duplex designs.

The Clinton Global Initiative ends today. For more information — and for videos from the three-day event, jump here.

Anyways, yesterday Pitt visited the construction site of the Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Center in Aviles, Spain. According to the mayor, Pitt has taken an interest in the project — in particular, the sustainable aspects. “Brad is interested in supporting the project, both in cultural and architectural aspects” Aviles mayor, Pilar Varela, said. “He is interested in building with innovation, novelty. Pitt was especially interested in the aspects of the project aimed at boosting environmental sustainability. This is why Brad Pitt has came to visit the site,” she added, noting it was too soon to say how exactly the actor would participate in the project that’s to be launched in mid-2010.

Pope Benedict XVI, not content to let the Vatican steal all the green glory, has just finished installing solar panels on his Bavarian home.

The 82-year-old Pontiff is certainly the greenest Pope yet — though his analogy of “saving gays” as akin to “saving the rainforests” is where we draw the line.

For his home near near Regensburg, Germany, over 580 square feet of photovoltaic solar panels were installed on the rooftop. The only condition for the project was that no church funds be used — so naturally, everything was donated. When tweaked and running, the panels are expected to output about 5,800 kilowatt hours of energy a year, which corresponds to saving 11 barrels of petroleum.

The project was commissioned not only for the environmental benefits, but also to produce income (which may amount to $3,500 a year), by providing the German electricity grid with energy. According to a German newspaper, the money will go to an association that offers skills and job training to disadvantaged youths.

In a recent encyclical, the Pope stated, “The technologically advanced societies can and must lower their domestic energy consumption, either through an evolution in manufacturing methods or through greater ecological sensitivity among their citizens. It should be added that at present it is possible to achieve improved energy efficiency while at the same time encouraging research into alternative forms of energy. ”

No word on whether the Pope will actually get to enjoy his solarized residence: his last visit there was in 2006.

via Sierra Club Green Home