You can build a house with straw bales or bury it underground if you want sustainable shelter, but you don't have to any more.

Sustainable living has evolved from the rougher-edged structures and remote locations that once defined the movement. Green builders now produce sleek offices and updated homes that defy old conventions.

The evolution also has carved new niches in the economy and begun to shift attention to broader ideals that embrace green community planning. A sustainable city offers residents walkable neighborhoods to reduce driving and amenities and policies that encourage efficient energy and water use.

That next step, infusing neighborhoods and cities with sustainable practices, will come more slowly as planning departments and elected officials grapple with change. But change is occurring in a handful of cities around the country, signaling the start of a grander grass-roots movement.

TURNING GREEN

Sustainable building started with pieces. Low-flush toilets. Higher-rated insulation. Double-paned windows. Energyefficient appliances. Natural carpets and flooring. Homes turned green slowly as owners added the pieces.

The whole-building concept caught on first in commercial offices and spread quickly to the high-tech industry and then to college campuses, where sustainability has flourished. Government buildings have started going green for the operational savings.

A report by consultant SBI predicted the green building industry would grow from $2.2 billion in activity two years ago to $4.7 billion by 2011.

GOLD STANDARD

Philip Beere of Phoenix wanted to build a home that would meet the strict sustainable standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council. He considered starting the house from the ground up but then reasoned that remodeling an existing house more fully met the spirit of sustainable principles.

"My goal was not to make it a new home but to preserve the old," he said.

Last year, Beere bought a house and all but gutted it. He insulated the walls, exterior and interior, installed double-paned windows, sealed the ducts and vents to stop air leaks and bought efficient air handlers.

The floors are bamboo. The kitchen is fitted with recycled concrete countertops, a recycled glass backsplash and Energy Star appliances. The whole house has low-flow plumbing fixtures. He used natural wool carpets in bedrooms, natural stone in bathrooms and paint with few toxic compounds.

His work paid off. He earned a gold certificate, the second highest, under the building council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, programs. His was just the third LEED certification for a remodeled house in the United States and the first gold remodel in the West.

CREATING JOBS

San Jose, Calif., rolled out its Green Vision program last year, setting a series of ambitious sustainability goals such as creating 25,000 clean tech jobs, replacing all of its energy use with renewable sources and diverting 100 percent of the waste stream to recycling or energy production.

"Energy is a huge market opportunity and so is transportation and green building — an opportunity not to create products but jobs," said Colin O'Mara, the city's clean-tech policy strategist.

If the city retrofits buildings to meet green standards, O'Mara said, jobs are created on site that can't be outsourced as so many were in the dot-com crash that hit San Jose hard.

"We want to make sure the opportunities help everyone, so environmentalism isn't just a movement for people who can afford it," he said.

One silver lining of the housing slump may be that it boosts the sustainable growth movement.

"We've seen what the future could be," said Pat Graham, Arizona director of the Nature Conservancy, a conservation group that works on urban sustainability issues. "With the slowdown, we have a chance to get out ahead of that future. We can get on a sustainable course."