Builder - February 2009 - (Page 52) THE CASE FOR GREEN BUILDING BETTER WITH BUILDING SCIENCE MAKING THE CASE for BUILDING GREEN HOMES Green building is growing exponentially. Builders and consumers are being driven to explore options in green building because of increases in energy costs, concern over environmental impact, and increased awareness about issues like indoor environmental quality. In addition, builders in a difficult market are looking for strategies to create a competitive advantage by differentiating their homes. Among some recent findings that showcase the growth of green building: The American Institute of Architects found that the number of American counties with green building initiatives has increased by nearly 400 percent since 2003. McGraw-Hill estimates the green building industry will be worth $60 billion by 2010. According to the Energy Information Administration’s short-term energy outlook published Sept. 9, 2008, heating fuel expenditures are expected to increase over time. According to the Fourth U.S. Climate Action Report (2007), carbon dioxide emissions increased nearly 20 percent between 1990-2004. The mass media is daily urging consumers to seek ways in which they can reduce their carbon footprint. DEFINING GREEN BUILDING Green building is sliced and diced different ways by various organizations that promote or certify green buildings. But there’s one common thread that’s shared by virtually all programs and experts: building science. Fundamentally, a building must be designed and built to perform as a system and must take into account a multitude of individual performance characteristics in order to perform well as a whole. To be a green building, it must perform against specific performance standards. In other words, the performance must be real and measurable. The Environments For Living Certified Green program has measurable performance metrics. It includes requirements in five of the six primary components of most green building initiatives – energy efficiency, resource/ material efficiency, water efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and homeowner education. The one green building component not addressed in the program – because it is prescriptive and not a points-based checklist program – is site planning. This means builders who choose the Environments For Living Certified Green program can add site planning and easily meet the requirements of most local green building programs and/or a national program such as the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Model Green Home Building Guidelines. Builders who wish to achieve one of those certifications, or the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Homes program, are invited to contact our staff to determine how they can best fulfill the requirements of the Environments For Living Certified Green program, plus the local or national certification of their choice. GREEN STARTS WITH ENERGY Joseph Lstiburek, Ph.D., P.Eng., a principal of Building Science Corporation
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