Green Building Elements

Since 2000, the U.S. Green Building Council has been transforming the built environment through the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program. If you’re at all paying attention to green buildings, you are well aware of LEED. There are now over 10,000 projects, representing over 3.5 billion square feet of buildings, that have been registered with LEED. And today, a new draft version of LEED becomes available for public comment. [Ed note: The draft is now available; see link below.]

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I remember reading the little placard on the bathroom vanity advising me to hang my damp towels with curiosity. We were on vacation and it was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing. We did this at home, but it seemed more practical - a way to avoid doing laundry each night. There was also a note about turning the lights out when we left our room. Little things.

We discussed the hanging of the towels and the turning off of the lights over a shrimp dinner that night at some tourist trap. I remember my mom saying that if we all do a little, we can do a lot. So I thought it was great when I heard of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s new executive order that requires state agencies and departments to hold meetings and conferences at lodgings that meet the new Florida Green Lodging standards. Read the rest of this entry »

Relaxation!
Fashion!
Celebrity!
Botox!
Booze!
Interiors!
Green!

Yes, most of this list refers to the Brit series Ab Fab but if Eddy and Patsy turned in their smokes and cocktails for organic and sustainable munchies then they too would be excited for the opening of the Epi Center MedSpa, the first LEED certified MedSpa in the country. (Another LEED spa exists in D.C. but it isn’t a MedSpa). So, because fictional characters from a long ago Brit TV series couldn’t check out this just opened San Fran based spa, I decided that I had to do it. Read the rest of this entry »

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has ambitious goals for reducing carbon emissions related to the built environment: it hopes to make all buildings carbon neutral by 2030, and aims for a 50% fossil fuel reduction by 2010. But to accomplish what is, in effect, a complete overhaul of the way the construction industry operates, the AIA must make sure that its message is heard by people outside its own membership. Toward that end, the group announced its “Walk the Walk: Architects Leading the Sustainable Evolution” campaign On January 15th of this year. Read the rest of this entry »

Under the FAQs for LEED for Homes is a question on whether the US Green Building Council has a LEED program for remodeling. The response is that they are “in active consideration.” It seems they’ve done more than just consider. Last month at the Interiors 08 conference in New Orleans, the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) unveiled REGREEN, a joint program with the USGBC to provide guidelines for remodeling green. REGREEN will target residential designers, construction professionals, and homeowners. Though the USGBC was involved in its creation, REGREEN will be vastly different than LEED. Instead of assigning a point value to each green product or practice, REGREEN will be used more as a resource of what remodelers have done in the past to make homes more energy efficient, healthy, and sustainable. Read the rest of this entry »

Architecture Week was first established one year ago as part of the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the American Institute of Architects.  This year, for the second Architecture Week, there are three big programs the organization is promoting.  But sustainability gets only a passing mention in one of them, and seems not to be part of the focus anywhere in the program.

While the AIA has another program it also began last year titled “Walk the Walk” that offers a good number of resources on sustainability both for architectural clients and the general public, as well as for architects and other building professionals, the topic is not highlighted in the Architecture Week program in any significant way.

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A new top-level LEED classification called Unobtanium is being proposed to replace the currently proposed Protactinium level, leading to a possible schism in the growing green building rating system.  Whether Protactinium or Unobtanium becomes the new top-level of the LEED rating system…?

Earlier this year, officials proposed a new level of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) that is higher than the current top-end Platinum rating. The new Protactinium level introduces more stringent requirements to ensure the purity of the design team and to verify their worthiness to obtain such a noble rating for their building. Read the rest of this entry »

In an MSNBC article last year, it was projected that by 2010 half of all new homes will be built green, since homebuilders see a big benefit to their business from going green. In a nationwide survey conducted in 2007 by Professional Builder Magazine, builders reported that they believed energy efficiency to be somewhat or extremely important to 97 percent of homebuyers; these builders also believed that indoor air quality, sustainability, and resource conservation were important considerations for more than half of their customers.

With sustainability issues coming to the forefront in the housing market, it’s not surprising that builders and developers are scrambling to implement some radical changes in their methodology. By what means does this occur? Often builders find it easiest to enlist the help of a third party resource. Third party organizations can introduce builders to a more complete array of information than they might be able to discover on their own, and can help a builder identify his or her own best course of action. Read the rest of this entry »

Here in the Bay Area, it’s not just Berkeley who’s showing Green Big Brother mentality. Green home building will be required from all new homes built in the unincorporated region of San Mateo County. The county supes this week voted to add sweeping green regulations to green construction requirements to take effect later this year.

The new regulations will cover homes and industrial projects. The Green commercial and industrial buildings can pass under the LEED system while residential properties can be gauged under Build it Green’s “Green Point Rated” system. Green Point Rated, a residential, Green rating system created by the Berkeley-based non profit, uses various point categories to achieve certification. For example, installing a range of Energy Star appliances is worth nine points and using low VOC paints and wood-coatings can garner six points. Homeowners can combine various point categories, as long as they add up to the magic 50 point total.

To be fair, this program does have its costs. Homeowners will have to pay a specialized green building inspector to verify their project for the county which will set them back about $800 to $1000, and for commercial owners it will cost from $2500 to $3500. Applicants will also be required to post a $5,000 bond prior to receiving a building permit, which will be released when the 50 points are verified.

Although I like this program, it does have shortcomings, however, such as not affording homeowners the incentive to obtain more than 50 points. Many people find the same issues with LEED rating system. People may think, “Why should I try for 60 points if it’s just going to cost more?” Home and commercial building owners may try for more points without considering the up-front cost, but it wouldn’t be a bad scenario if the County of San Mateo offered further incentives for higher points.

LEED-H. FGBC. Energy Star. HERS. Fortified Home. EarthCraft. These are all names of green building standards used around the country for homes. And now NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) is due to unveil its own Green Building Standard at the upcoming International Building Show in Orlando, Feb. 13-16. Read the rest of this entry »