Living and building the eco-friendly way, will indeed be the wave of the future! In Palm Beach County, Florida a $29 million 'green' mansion known as the Acqua Liana, Tahitian and Fijian for "water flower", was completed last month! 15,071 sq feet of 'green' living, conveniently located on the ocean!

The Acqua Liana was built by Frank McKinney, a man who calls himself a "maverick daredevil real estate artist." There are enough solar panels located on this home to create enough energy to run the entire home, it's fully equipped with energy efficient appliances, A/C and lighting that will cut back on the energy consumption of the fixtures by 70%.

With the addition of the pools, reflecting ponds, water gardens with waterfalls and the landscaping that was laid out, the temperature drop of a few degrees will not only affect this home; but the neighbors homes as well!

The water system collects enough runoff water to fill an average size swimming pool every two weeks and recycles it back to fill the water garden and the irrigation system.

The construction of the home produced over 340,000 pounds of trash that was recycled and over 85% of the debris was re-used on site and will never see a landfill!

The wood used to build the home was reclaimed wood as opposed to wood fresh out of the rainforests!

That being said, I'm not sure if I'm impressed at all the green perks that money can buy or to be horrified by the amount of natural resources that were destroyed to build the 15,000 square foot 'green' ocean front mansion! Can you even use the words 'green' and 'mansion' in the same sentence? While being green is indeed the way that the future is heading, will it be nothing more than another flashy way to impress the wealthy. Like the neighbor who spends $10,000 on a faux finishing paint job in the kitchen, for no other reason than to impress their wealthy friends and neighbors! Will the new owners of this home live a 'green' lifestyle by recycling, gardening and using renewable resources or will the house be bought only for show? The home can really only be as 'green' as the people that live in it!