Green, Green and more Green - A Cleaner Planet

I am not one for "banging on my drum" about turning green or saving the environment or green house gases. That said, I am all for "Green Building" or Environmental Friendly Building" on the basis that it makes sense and why would you not go green in this case.

Since when was building a home to be durable, energy efficient, built from renewable materials and with a low toxic content a bad thing.

If we turn this around, you have got the following. A poorly built home that is wasting money through poor insulation and energy efficiency that is made from materials that are going to cause harm to you and your family.

So as I stated earlier, "why would you not go green".

So what is "green home building"?

Well, I certainly do not know all the "ins & outs", I am possibly as new to green building as you are.

But I am fairly sure that if you look around at any new construction that is going on, you will not go far before you ran into something that is "green".

So what is building a green home. Well in short, very short, it is building a home with three key elements, Material Selection(renewable, durable, recyclable, etc), Building Performance( Energy Efficiency, Air Quality, low toxicity, etc) and Site Development(re-vitalizing existing developed areas, down sizing homes, reduced water run off, providing shade cooling, zero-scaping, etc).

A green home may cost a little more to build, but it should offer savings to the homeowner though being more energy efficient, saving water through water saving fixtures, etc which will reduce the level of usage of resourses and reduce the home owners utility bills.

There are many good websites out there that will give you information on green homes or making you home greener, try HGTVPro.com for lots of articles and videos on the matter.

To find a "green" real estate agent or to become a EcoBroker visit EBroker.com

Or find local organizations like EarthCraft House, originally only available in Atlanta, GA area, that has now grown to cover Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.

To understand what makes a house "green", the US Green Building Council set up an industry wide certification program to promote, certificate and monitor "green" homes.

The US Green Building Council & LEED program.

"According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it takes more than using a few sustainable practices to build a high-performance green home. USGBC is the nation's foremost coalition of leaders from every sector of the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work. To define and promote green building, USGBC developed LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building)in 1998. LEED is a cutting edge system used for designing, constructing, and certifying green buildings, and it is the nationally accepted benchmark for high performance green building. Since its pilot launch in 1998, LEED has evolved and branched out to include: LEED for New Construction, LEED for Existing Buildings, LEED for Commercial Interiors, LEED for Core & Shell, and most recently, LEED for Homes, which is currently in the pilot phase. This new program is expected to launch in Summer 2007."

"LEEDfor Homes is a rating system that promotes designing and constructing high performance green homes. Its goal is to help move the mainstream home building industry toward more sustainable practices. The rating system uses 8 different categories to measure the overall performance of a home. Each category contains a specific number of credits; each credit is worth 1 or more possible points. Homes are given a LEED certification rating based on the total number of points scored. The 4 certification ratings are as follows: LEED Certified is awarded to homes scoring between 45 and 59 total points; LEED Silver is awarded to homes scoring between 60 and 74 total points; LEED Gold is awarded to homes scoring between 75 and 89 total points; and LEED Platinum is awarded to homes scoring between 90 and 128 total points. A builder can choose which credits to comply with for the home attempting to be certified; however, among the 8 categories are 18 mandatory measures that must be completed in every LEED-certified home."

"LEED Professional Accreditationdistinguishes building professionals with the knowledge and skills to successfully steward the LEED certification process. LEED Accredited Professionals (LEED APs) have demonstrated a thorough understanding of green building practices and principles and the LEED Rating System. More than 43,000 people have earned the credential since the Professional Accreditation program was launched in 2001."