Green Building Elements

“Our homes embrace the principles of eco-friendliness and cost-effectiveness, without sacrificing beauty. We can ensure that each dwelling achieves a gold or platinum LEED rating, depending on the particular finishes, building systems, and site design an owner chooses.” ~ Michelle Kaufmann Designs

Each Glidehouse home is solar ready with other renewable energy system options possible such as geothermal, wind generator or hybrid systems. Designed for clean, simple living. The Glidehouse is built in a factory, using the most modern and environmentally friendly building methods and materials.

Some eco features of the Glidehouse include:

• using healthy finishes such as non-toxic paints and formaldehyde-free cabinetry.
• it meets the Energy Star® program standards for energy efficient homes and meets the performance standards of the American Lung Association Health House program.
• it’s insulated with an air-barrier, open cell foam insulation, and all wood-to-wood framing joints are caulked, which makes the home airtight, energy efficient, and less likely to produce mold.
• it uses water-saving plumbing fixtures, on-demand water heaters, and a mechanical ventilation system that is 30% more efficient than typical forced-air systems.
• energy efficient, dual-pane glass windows and doors are placed throughout the home to maximize cross-ventilation and natural lighting, minimizing the need for artificial lighting and climate control.

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Did you know that if you install a Biomass Stove – wood, pellets, etc. that you can nab a  30% tax credit ($1,500  max) up until 2010? Who knows that homeowners can get a 30% tax break for installing Solar Hot Water Heating until  2016? Maybe the new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) which was signed into law by President Obama in February 2009 isn’t as complicated as the IRS tax code but does anyone really want to delve into the 400 pages of legislation to figure all the ins and outs about how to qualify for the green tax credits available to homeowners?

In a Cliff’s Notes version of the myriad incentives, rebates, and tax incentives GREENandSAVE has created a Federal Tax Incentive Decoder and condensed the material to 11 bite sized pages. Best of all, this resource does not cost a dime and can be downloaded at: http://www.greenandsave.com/homecheckup/free_federal_tax_incentive_decoder

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Even in a Greencentric city like Berkeley, locals and Bay Area visitors would be Green with envy when they see the just opened David Brower Center. It feels healthy just to walk through the Green down-to-the-bones building which combines advanced technology along with simple recycled materials.

When entering for their housewarming party we had a difficult time not noticing the soaring concrete walls which made us think more dot com than gallery. The fact that in creating a building with an oh- so-feathery carbon footprint (when compared to most structures) Principal Architect, Daniel Solomon included up to 70 percent slag in those walls. Read the rest of this entry »

Building with reclaimed building materials is a great way to reduce the environmental footprint of a building. LEED and GreenPoints both award points for use of reclaimed materials. However, some reclaimed materials can be radioactive.

Fly ash is the material left over from burning coal. A waste product with little other use, it is sometimes added to concrete or bricks. However, if the original coal contained radioactive isotopes, those isotopes will be greatly concentrated in the ash.

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Last fall, Cathy Woods removed her Jupurana Bordeaux granite counters because they were radioactive.  She did not want uranium ore in her kitchen, and she did not want to breathe the radon gas emitted by the granite.

The showroom that sold Cathy her granite had a new shipment of Jupurana Bordeaux around the same time.  That stone was more radioactive than the granite they sold Cathy. However, sales staff told customers their granite was no more radioactive than soil or water.

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Erica Marcus declared, “I was basically thrown out of a showroom today for mentioning radiation to the owner”. “This tells a lot about the industry knowing about what they are selling.”

Erica and her husband are shopping for granite countertops, and Erica is asking questions about radiation. They are both “serious cooks”, and they have two young children. They do not want any chance of increased radiation in their kitchen, but Erica found that granite showrooms do not welcome her questions.

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Cathy Woods’ new granite counters were radioactive. They contained as much uranium as commercial uranium ore. The showroom that sold Cathy her Jupurana Bordeaux granite did not warn her that some granite is radioactive.

When I contacted the salesman, posing as a customer, he assured me their granite “is no more radioactive than soil or water”. However, Cathy’s granite emitted gamma radiation at many times background. The radon gas emitted by the stone tripled the radon concentration in her kitchen.

Jupurana Bordeaux is one of the granites that are likely to be radioactive. Just weeks after having her counters installed, Cathy learned of the possibility and enlisted the assistance of professionals to assess her exposure to radiation and radon gas.

Radon is a daughter product of uranium, so granites containing uranium will emit radon. According to the EPA, radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. Cathy and her husband both have family histories of cancer, so they were very concerned about elevated radiation and radon in their kitchen.

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Panasonic is fast becoming a brand name not just for electronics but also for green building products.

Eco-Products 2008 recently held in Tokyo, showcased a series of award-winning green products and services. The E Floor, developed by Panasonic Electric Works, was given the Chairperson’s Award. The Eco Product Awards is presented by four organizations including the Global Environmental Forum, a non-profit organization under the jurisdiction of Japan’s Ministry of Environment.

The E-floor is an extremely durable product made from a 100% recycled hard chip board. According to Panasonic, using this material can be equated to saving forest areas that are 135 times the size of the Tokyo Dome, on an annual basis. Panasonic began selling the E Floor product line over a  year ago with a monthly sales target of 170 million yen.

I believe more companies will bring a wide range of their green technologies into their products and services across group companies in coming years.

Related Posts:

• Eco Timber Offers Comprehensive Online Green Flooring Guide
• Natural Building 101: How To Make an Earthen or Adobe Floor
• Eco-Products 2008, One of Japan’s Biggest Environmental Fairs to Open This Week

Related Link:

• Panasonic E Floor (in Japanese)

Panasonic E Floor with Award at Eco-Products 2008

Panasonic E Floor at Eco-Products 2008

Image Credits: Panasonic/Tetsuya Yokoyama

Sometimes being green means taking on the “less is more” philosophy. Such would be the case with the Cavallo Lodge over in Sausalito. For the recently opened lodge, about half of the current lodge rooms they converted from the previous officers quarters, military barracks and the like. But don’t think of this place like Full Metal Jacket but rather Organic Cotton Robe.

We visited there a few months ago for the Going Green conference but we didn’t get a chance to survey the property much. This time, we got to stay over and even check out the spa. (Life is tough) The lodge, waiting for LEED Silver certification, offers new rooms and the classic ones. Even though the new ones offer radiant heating and the hot water comes via tankless water heaters, which reduce the energy consumed by those dinosaur era traditional water heaters. They installed photo-voltaic panels on 12 of the 14 new buildings’ south-facing, standing seam metal roofs which produce about 75 percent of the electricity necessary to run the buildings.

We cozied up in one of the existing building rooms which offer more charm (like the tine roof ceilings and the detailed antique radiator). By reusing the existing buildings, they already considered their carbon footprint. We can only be impressed by the fact that the brains and money behind the lodge used nearly 100% of the building shells and retained or repurposed roughly 75% of the building cores. We applaud these efforts as they not only extend the life cycle of existing building stock, conserve resources, and reduce waste but it also retains cultural and historical resources.

Although we couldn’t see the insulation we knew that they used blue jean insulation in the contemporary lodging and a portion in the Healing Arts Center. Speaking of the Spa, they constructed the floors and ceilings from rapidly renewable materials such as bamboo, wool or cork. Besides green building attributes they offer creativity by repurposing plastic dry cleaning bags (that come off site) for spa guests to take home their wet bathing suits.

Almost no other plastic can be seen on property and the staff couldn’t be nicer (as well as pretty well informed about the green aspects. Now if they could only get rid of the few incandescent bulbs (in the spa and the lodge) then we would be that much more pleased.

Photo by Kodiak Greenwood

The Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association’s Environmental Stewardship Program (KCMA-ESP) encourages cabinet manufacturers to go green in all aspects of cabinet production, from smart harvesting to a healthier final product.

If cabinet manufacturers built simply to qualify for LEED credits, they could use recycled materials or no formaldehyde in their final product, but cause enormous environmental destruction in their manufacturing process.  Rather than simply gauging the final product’s green-ness, the KCMA-ESP takes every step in a cabinet’s life into account.  How was the wood harvested?  How much energy was wasted in its production?   Were the wood shavings, sawdust, or scrap reused for fuel or some other purpose?  Does the final product contain any volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like urea-formaldehyde? Read the rest of this entry »