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Building Green, What does it mean?

Building Green, What does it mean?

I remember the first time I heard the term “building green” used. The article showed pictures of a house in the desert built out of used car tires and empty bottles all held in place with mortar. It was REALLY ugly and that image stuck with me for a long time. Fortunately today the meaning of green building has evolved, but still has room for interpretation. So what does Green Building mean to you? Does it mean….

A. Protecting the environment. Using building products that are environmentally friendly and responsibly manufactured that have earned the “Cradle to Grave” rating.

Cradle to Grave products meet strict requirements with regard to being environmentally friendly from production of the item, life time durability, and even to its impact at time of disposal. Details can be found at the Cradle to Grave guideline .

Another step to protecting the environment is to use responsibly harvested wood products, recycled products, low or No VOC paints, and interior finishing materials that release little to no chemicals into the air over its lifetime, also known as off gassing.


B. Taking the extra time to break down the material order to reduce the amount of jobsite waste to a minimum.

This step can be a difficult change for some builders. I’ve seen some job sites that have a bundle or two of 16 foot long 2x4’s delivered and use the idea of “we’ll just cut up what we need”. These jobsites tend to have a lot of wasted material; which equals higher tonnage fees, extra trips to the dump which incur more fees, plus the cost of the wasted material.
 

C. Building an energy efficient home. Reducing the monthly energy bills, to save money and help save natural resources and reduce our “carbon footprint”.

Well, actually the correct answer is ALL of THE ABOVE. By considering the  weather data and applying building sciences to every step of home construction, design, orientation, foundation, walls, insulation, roof, and interior materials, we can build higher quality, energy efficient homes that will last longer.

With all of these items combined a Green Home is a great value. A Green Home can be designed and built in any style you like. And the best part is you don’t need to find a bunch of used tires or empty bottles.

A great place to start your research is on the Nation Association of Home Builders website

Marc Descoteaux
Dacota Group Builders
Member JCBIA Board of Directors
NAHB Certified Green Builder

JCBIA 2015 Scholarship Recipient
Governor McCrory signs SB 25
 

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