We’ve all heard it. We’ve all read it. We’ve all been overwhelmed by the green building movement.
Green has lots of definitions, but no real meaning. You can build a 12,000 square foot home and follow the published guidelines and have a green home. You can build a 1,000 square foot home and ignore all the guidelines and have an energy hungry, unsustainable home.
Each person needs to define their needs and look at what is available. If you don’t need the space, don’t build it. If your home is in an amazing area and you love it, don’t move to build a green home.
When you look at where you are and where you want to be, you can begin to define your “personal green”. The shade of green will depend on many things, lifestyle, budget, location, availability. Green should be a shade, not a hard and fast color. It has to work for you and to be defined by your choices.
There are certain steps that no green home can be built without. Is the home energy efficient (#1 on my list)? Is the air quality good (#1.8 on my list)? This list can go on and on, but it is basic and can’t be compromised.
From there it becomes a grayer shade of green. Water conservation should be near the top of the list, but it is much less critical in some areas (what if you live on a creek and have spring fed water, so no need for an irrigation system?) and much more critical in others (the water table is falling and there are drought conditions). While saving energy is important, how you do it is less so…just do it. Recycling shouldn’t be a choice…it should be the only option.
So think a little bit about your shade of green before you dive into this so green pool.
Of course, I can’t end without reminding you that a timber frame insulated with structural insulated panels is the great start for any green project, large or small, and that timber frames have for centuries been the original green homes. We have many clients who built before the “green revolution” and who have the greenest homes and lifestyles to be found.
That said, I’ll sign off for now.