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Green
building inches into the mainstream; [ |
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Sandra
Fleishman, The |
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Abstract (Document Summary) |
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- The Web site
www.nahbrc.org/greenguidelines has voluntary green building guidelines
developed by the National Association of Home Builders and the |
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(Copyright
2005 by the Today marks 35 years since the first Earth Day. Have Not quite. But the outlook for what is called "green
building"-- that is, designing homes or other structures to be energy
efficient, water conserving and built in a way that minimizes the impact on
the environment and is protective of indoor air quality, among other
things--is the sunniest it has ever been, according to advocates and housing
experts. Green building has generally been regarded as a fringe
concern, important to only hard-core environmentalists. But with steadily
increasing energy prices looming over their heads, many in the Boomer
generation that brought us Earth Day on Buildings consume 39 percent of the energy used in the Americans are also looking twice at green building because
they have become more concerned about indoor air problems linked to toxic chemicals
found in some building materials, carpets and furniture. The chemicals have
been blamed for asthma and other respiratory problems. Eliminating outdoor
pollution caused by burning fossil fuels for power plants also has always
been an environmentalist cause. Making a connection between buildings and these problems has
taken a while. It wasn't until 1993, for instance, that plans to green the
White House were announced, on Earth Day by President Clinton; they were
completed within about a year. But the connection finally is being made, say green building
groups. "It's not just for crunchies, it's not just for
granola-eaters anymore," said Sean McGuire, coordinator of the Green
Building Network in Maryland, an informal information-sharing service for developers
and consumers that meets monthly to discuss new technologies and trends. The nation's big builders, meanwhile, are starting to buy
into the concepts for their own reasons, say housing trend watchers. "Historically green building has been the domain of a
relatively small number of niche builders," said Ward Hubbell, executive
director of the Green Building Initiative, a nonprofit group set up by the
National Association of Home Builders to sell its new green guidelines
program to local chapters. But building green is a way for bigger, high-production
builders to distinguish themselves from the pack, Hubbell said. "Good
builders are using a lot of this already, they're
just not calling it that. This raises the bar for the mass builder," he
said. Also helping to raise the bar is the realization that
perhaps going green doesn't require as much green from consumers' pocketbooks
as once thought. Advocates say that as more builders use green products,
costs will drop, and the energy savings over the life of the house will be
enough to outweigh the upfront cost differential. In some cases, they say,
homeowners can cut their energy bills in half or more. While big and small builders generally have focused their
efforts in going green on states facing energy and water shortages or with
extreme climates, such as And it doesn't hurt when the topic comes up on national
television, said John Loyer, a specialist in the association's Energy and
Green Building Department. "If you watch 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' on ABC,
they recently had a segment on a zero-energy house, a house that not only
saves energy but sells back enough energy to the (power) grid to have a net
zero" energy bill, Loyer said. "If it's coming up on national
television in prime time, it's getting an enormous amount of attention. It's
quickly becoming a question for our high- producing guys of 'why aren't you
green?"' "The interest is incredible" from builders, said
James Hackler, program manager for a ratings standard program being developed
for homes by the U.S. Green Building Council. The council is considered the
lead private-public partnership working on the issue, but has focused first
on creating and promoting a ratings and certification program for commercial
properties. The LEED for Homes program, which will start this summer
with pilot programs across the country, is a follow-on
to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification system
that has been around since 2000 for commercial buildings. So far 171
commercial buildings have been certified and about 1,800 have applied to be
certified. "If everyone feels comfortable" with the pilot
phase and how the standards might be tweaked for different climates and
different building materials popular in particular markets, "then we
will relaunch it and make it available to the entire country," Hackler said. NAHB and the Some green-building purists are concerned that the
association's approach, which allows builders to self-certify that they have
followed parts of a 200-page green checklist, might water down the overall
effort or cause some confusion among consumers. A variety of federal, state
and local green-building programs have taken root in the past decade that
rate builders with independent certification. But even die-hard green groups say the launch of the trade
association's program represents a key shift from the fringe to the
mainstream. "When I started five years ago, very few people knew
what LEED was, very few architectural firms had a LEED-accredited
professional on staff, and now they have whole sections of people," said
McGuire, coordinator of Maryland's Green Building Network. There's still a long way to go, though. NAHB estimates that out of the millions of homes constructed
in the last 15 years, only about 61,000 have been built through local
green-building programs. But enthusiasts say that doesn't count homes built
or remodeled with green practices by niche builders or by industrious
homeowners themselves. And green builder groups are buoyed by how the pace of
construction has picked up recently. Of the 61,000 green homes built through
local programs, about 14,000 went up in 2004 alone, according to NAHB. The proliferation of green guides and state, local and
national programs can be confusing for homeowners, the experts agree.
"There is some concern that all these initiatives will be so confusing
that nobody will be able to figure it out," said Hackler, program manager
for the LEED for Homes initiative. "But I use this analogy: Have you
ever been to a grocery store where there are a lot of choices? Yet when we go
in, we go right to the brand that serves our needs." For instance, in The - - - Resources for going green There are many Web sites and books on green building these
days, including some dedicated to particular kinds of construction, such as passive
solar, and to specific materials and equipment, such as composting toilets,
tankless water heaters and decking made from recycled materials. For a
broader look, here are some suggestions: Web Sites - The Southface Institute's Web site for information on the
EarthCraft House rating and certification program used in - The Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program
about energy-efficient home building and retrofits at www.energystar.gov. - The Web site www.nahbrc.org/greenguidelines has voluntary
green building guidelines developed by the National Association of Home
Builders and the - Environmental Building News-Building Green Inc. in - The U.S. Green Building Council, a coalition of leaders
from across the building industry, at www.usgbc.org. The council has
developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating and
certification program for commercial buildings and is working on LEED for
Homes. Books and guides - "Good Green Homes: Creating Better Homes for a
Healthier Planet," by Jennifer Roberts (Gibbs Smith Publishers, $39.95). - "Green Building Products," a listing of more
than 1,400 products for builders and homeowners from a data base that has
been maintained since 1998. Written by the editors and staff of Environmental
Building News in - "Green by Design: Creating a Home for Sustainable
Living," by Angela Dean (Gibbs Smith Publishers, $24.95). - "Green Remodeling: Changing the World One Room at a
Time," by David R. Johnston and - "The New Ecological Home: A Complete Guide to
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Your
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ISSN/ISBN: |
10856706 |
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1547 |
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