CAN YOU TELL?

We finally did it! We have a "green house". Built by a National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) certified builder, me, Rick Martin. That's right, I got my certification. I am officially a Certified Green Professional (CGP). To read that in alphabet soup format, it looks like this: CGP from NAHB. This goes along with the CGB professional designation that also is from NAHB.

So here is the million dollar question; take a close look at the picture and tell me how we know it is a "Green House". Go ahead, look closely. Is it the siding? How about the windows? The price tag? The truth is that from the outside, you can't really tell. So let's walk inside and look. At the kitchen, the plumbing fixtures, the flooring, the furnace. Again, the truth is that even from the inside, although there are "green" hints, it is not obvious. So what makes it "green"?

Again, we need to go back to the goals of green building; to design and build a home that economically use resources both during the construction of and during the life cycle of living in a house. The goals of construction include site preparation that minimizes impact on the existing resources. Like preserving vegetation, both for erosion controls, and for wild life habitat. Like installing controls to keep sediment from washing off the lot in rain storm events. Like defining the wet lands, along with an edict to everyone that works on the site that if we catch them in the wetland, there will be dire consequences. And these are all green items that are unnoticed.

So you have me; I am trying to think of green items that you could see. Because even the price tag is not dramatically higher due to the green features of the house. Most of the items you can actually see, are the Energy Star items. The Energy Star rated windows, dishwasher, bath fans, the basement insulation, the higher efficiency furnace (if you take the time to read the label on the side), and the CFL light bulbs. Even what I think are the more important green features of the low VOC paint and caulk, the low formaldehyde OSB, and the low flow faucets are not visible.

So yea, how do you know it is green? I guess that is why the 3rd party inspection is important. We have all seen how easy it is to say what you think other people want to hear. Just look at the ultimate salespeople, politicians. I am continually amazed at their brazen statements, that totally disregard the actual facts. The lesson is simple, the only way to be sure it is an actual green house, is to be able to see the list of green standards that have been achieved in a house, and to see independent verification of those standards.

For more information on this house, go to www.WheatlandHomes.com/in-the-news/ and click on the "8 Redwood Drive" link