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Let’s let Wikipedia dull it down for us, shall we?
“Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use and harvest energy, water, and materials, and reducing building impacts on human health and the environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal — the complete building life cycle.”
Mmm. Sleepy. Sorry, what? Oh, right. Anyway...
Let’s now look at some things that are not the environment that fall under the green building bumbershoot.
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Many toxic elements in our building materials and processes have been recognized to cause dizziness, nausea, death and fanatical interest in mental pablum such as American Idol. Green building addresses indoor air quality with stink-free materials, fresh air exchange systems and better product labeling. -
Energy use is, of course, a hot and bothery topic amongst environmentalists. But did you know that energy costs money? Try this out: use less energy to accomplish the same thing. Sweet! It’s called efficiency (not to be confused with conservation, i.e. “sitting in a cave in the dark”) and it’s a hot green building topic. Example: Energy Star appliances use less energy to get clothes and dishes just as clean or to get food just as chilly. -
Here’s a math problem: Jill can pay $3,000 for wood to build her home or she can pay $2,000 for less wood to build her home just as well. If Jill spends $3,000, how stupid is Jill? Using less material is often an option when building. In the case of framing a house, less wood also allows for more and better insulation, which means Jill could have spent less on heating, too. Silly Jill. We could go on, but we go on regularly at the Eagle Valley Alliance’s Green Building Group speaker series. The series brings smart people to talk about the newest, coolest, greenest things going in the built environment. See what’s coming up at the Green Building Group
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