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Green is such a ubiquitous term—a label applied to businesses of almost every stripe—that it was difficult, initially, for The Real Story to pinpoint what “Green Living” might mean to Californians.

Fortunately, San Francisco is the home of West Coast Green, a conference about environmental innovation with a world-class roster of speakers. We spent a few days at Fort Mason last fall, and came back with a much better understanding of how the State of California impacts green living through its Energy Commission and the state Public Utilities Commission.

The California Energy Commission is in charge of changing the way NEW homes are built; the PUC is working on ways to improve the efficiency of existing homes. Part of the Federal Stimulus package passed last year earmarked a whopping $42 billion for energy related funds. But where does the money need to go?

We learned from talking to Brian Gitt of Bevilacqua-Knight that new homes, because of advances in building technology, contribute less than 2% to the problem of greenhouse gases. It’s the older homes—built before Title 24 was passed in 1978—that are the real energy drains. Of the 13.2 million existing homes in California, 75% of them were built before Title 24. That means we have almost 10 million homes with inadequate insulation, faulty ducting, single paned windows and/or manual heating systems to attend to if we’re going to meet the state’s goal of a 40% increase in home energy efficiency by 2020.

California’s Building Industry Association, led by the BIA of the Bay Area, has shown real leadership in developing—and agreeing to uphold—a set of green building standards that are a model for homebuilding now and in the future. Even though it currently costs more to build a home using green standards—especially in a market whose prices have been hammered by foreclosures—they’re going for it. This should be great news for the Millennial homebuyers, the younger strata of the buying populace, for whom green is not just an option—it’s essential in their buying decisions.

This year, The Real Story also learned a lot about solar energy—the fact that solar will be a mandatory in new home construction in the next few years and that California is preparing for more solar power by raising its net energy cap.

Finally, we have had the chance to see some of the new green products now available to consumers, like paints and wood stains that don’t emit pollutants, fabrics and furnishings that are sustainably made, insulation made from recycled blue jeans and even carpet pad made of recycled paper.

The Real Story interviewed some of the brilliant people who are envisioning our green future; we’ll talk about what we learned from them on Friday, when we wrap up the week with a post on Innovation.