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1.what is green?
The following above were a series published in the Peninsula Pulse newspaper, Door County, Wisconsin. |
On The Green: By Virge Temme, AIA Chapter 4: LEED-ing the Way On March 24 I attended a training session in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the LEED for Homes program. LEED stands for "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" and the program is under the direction of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED was created in the early 1990s to provide technical guidance and building performance testing for architects, builders, and owners. Buildings constructed to LEED standards are the most environmentally sustainable buildings in the world...that's right: in the world. LEED for Homes is the newest of the LEED programs, and will be released for use in February 2007. A pilot study was initiated last year to formulate optimum standards for evaluating homes under LEED. The Midwest is one of several areas in the U.S. to be included in this pilot study, and a dozen homes will represent our area of the country. LEED is a rating system based on points earned for site work, construction practices and proper selection of materials used, as well as energy systems, landscaping, and construction waste reduction and management. The program further requires that all members of the team - designer, builder and owner - understand how and why choices are made, and their effects on the environment. Points are earned for helping the owner understand how to make the building continue to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner long after it is occupied. Most readers of this column have heard of the Energy Star program. Others may also be familiar with the Green Built Home program. Energy Star requires that energy efficiency of appliances, lighting, and other elements within its program be 15% higher than required by code. Energy Star also provides testing for air infiltration in homes, to ensure against air leaks that waste energy. Green Built Home similarly raises the bar for home construction materials and practices. LEED uses these two programs as part of its baseline review, and then raises the standards even higher. The holistic approach that LEED takes is impressive and inspiring. Attending the training really opened my eyes to certain nuances of sustainable design of which I was previously unaware. As an example, I learned that LEED requires an automatic sprinkler system for landscape watering, because use of LEED-approved sprinklers reduces water consumption when compared with hand-watering. Rainwater cisterns earn positive rating points; drought-resistant plant selection can earn still more points and can eliminate the need for a sprinkler system altogether. Large turf lawns earn negative points. I learned that a LEED-certified building is considered to have a higher market value than a comparable non-LEED building. Fannie Mae, the nation's largest mortgage broker, automatically adds 5% to the value of a LEED building because a LEED certification guarantees that it is built according to highest possible construction standards. Many banks give better rates for LEED-certified buildings for the same reason. This more than offsets the anticipated 2-5% increase in costs associated with these sustainable buildings. The thing that really struck me at the meeting, though, was that over half the attendees were developers who build 40-100+ high-end homes per year. These were not "hippy tree-huggers", but multi-million-dollar business leaders. Certainly, these forward-thinking men and women recognized LEED for Homes as a marketing tool they knew would be important to their continued success. But they also acknowledged their responsibility to their profession, their communities, and their world. They insist that materials they purchase are produced using environmentally sustainable practices, from companies that treat their workers responsibly and humanely, whether in the U.S., China, or elsewhere. They also insist that their construction crews and subcontractors all follow sustainable building practices, right down to job-site recycling. These leaders admit that it takes more work initially to train everyone, and they spend more time researching products than they used to. Ultimately, though, the homes are better-built, are healthier to live in, and the homeowners express far greater satisfaction with the home and with the builder. In listening to the bottom-line results expressed by these developers it became obvious that building sustainably not only improved their businesses, but also their sense of professional and personal pride. I left with high hopes that this attitude might be embraced quickly and widely here in this, one of the country's most special pockets of natural beauty, our own Door County. Note: The Door County Renewable Energy Task Force is assembling a Directory of Sustainable Building Professionals. This information will be provided to the public at the 2006 Fall Tour of Sustainable Homes. Any designers, architects, builders and contractors who have completed sustainable projects, or have projects under construction in Door County which represent sustainable practices, renewable energies, etc., are encouraged to send this information to Judy Pardonner, 708 Woodcrest Rd, Sister Bay, WI. |