Green

Before "GREEN" became a marketing tool and building industry buzz word I was incorporating environmentally responsible systems into my client's homes. Improved building envelopes, ultra high efficiency mechanical systems, combined with proper window placement and orientation of the structure on the building site achieve even greater results for our homeowners and neighbors at present. As suppliers invest research and development resources in higher efficiency systems, products that emit fewer or no toxins, and manufacture these products in an environmentally viable manner, we all benefit. It is rapidly becoming possible to remove homes from the utility grid without having the homes envelope or structure appear to be a hybrid, or industrial in visual nature. Thus, we can achieve an environmentally wise and healthy environment for our clients to live in while preserving a traditional appearance in their home setting. I continue to seek higher levels of instruction and certification in "GREEN" design and construction techniques that require less fossil fuel consumption, create a healthier home environment for my clients to live in and a cleaner world for our children to inherit. What would you like to design together? Contact me Residential and commercial buildings are the single largest consumer of fossil fuel energy. As individuals and a nation we must increase our efforts to reduce our fossil fuel usage in our homes and commercial buildings. The following organizations and standards are some of the practices I encourage our clients to allow me to design and build to when creating a new home, renovating an existing home, or creating a commercial or medical facility in order to reduce each structure's fossil fuel consumption and improve interior air quality for the building occupants. It is my goal to assist in reducing our existing and new structure carbon impact to neutral by year 2030. NAHB - National Green Building Program The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHBGreen) National Green Building Program helps builders and remodelers design, construct, certify homes to the National Green Building Standard www.nahbgreen.org RESNET Residential Energy Services Network Building performance certification for designers, builders and raters of building energy performance. www.resnet.us EPA/DOE National Energy Star Programs The goal of the ES Programs is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere by promoting the efficient (reduced) use of energy by reducing wasted energy and alleviating the need to build additional fossil fuel burning power plants. A corollary benefit of these energy efficiency programs is a reduced demand on all electric power sources including hydroelectric dams. Reducing the demand on hydroelectric dams lessens the possibility for new initiatives to build additional dams and thus contributes to the preservation of our natural river basins and helps to save our salmon runs. www.energystar.gov AIA 2030 Challenge The American Institute of Architects Scientists give us 10 years to be well on our way toward global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions in order to avoid catastrophic climate change. Yet there are hundreds of coal-fired power plants currently on the drawing boards in the US. Seventy-six percent (76%) of the energy produced by these plants will go to operate buildings. Buildings are the major source of demand for energy and materials that produce by-product greenhouse gases (GHG). Slowing the growth rate of GHG emissions and then reversing it over the next ten years is the key to keeping global warming under one degree centigrade (°C) above today's level. It will require immediate action and a concerted global effort. To accomplish this, Architecture 2030 has issued The 2030 Challenge asking the global architecture and building community to adopt the following: All new buildings, developments and major renovations shall be designed to meet a fossil fuel, GHG-emitting, energy consumption performance standard of 50% of the regional (or country) average for that building type. At a minimum, an equal amount of existing building area shall be renovated annually to meet a fossil fuel, GHG-emitting, energy consumption performance standard of 50% of the regional (or country) average for that building type. The fossil fuel reduction standard for all new buildings and major renovations shall be increased to: 60% in 2010 70% in 2015 80% in 2020 90% in 2025 Carbon-neutral in 2030 (using no fossil fuel GHG emitting energy to operate). These targets may be accomplished by implementing innovative sustainable design strategies, generating on-site renewable power and/or purchasing (20% maximum) renewable energy and/or certified renewable energy credits LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a rating system devised by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) to evaluate the environmental performance of a building and encourage market transformation towards sustainable design. The system is credit-based, allowing projects to earn points for environmentally friendly actions taken during construction and use of a building. LEED was launched in an effort to develop a “consensus-based, market-driven rating system to accelerate the development and implementation of green building practices.” The program is not rigidly structured; not every project must meet identical requirements to qualify. ANSI: American National Standards Instititute/ National Green Building Standard ICC 700-2008