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When
I built my first “green” house
I didn’t know it was green. It was green not so much by
design as by luck, a bit of common sense and the wisdom gained
from having done it “wrong” in the past. When I say
it was “wrong” I mean in comparison to what I have
come to think of as the basics of green building. That is, building
homes that are durable and long lasting, low-maintenance, energy
efficient and healthy. Not just healthy for the larger environment,
but healthy for the people who live them as well.
My interest
in building green was a conscious decision that evolved over
time. It was an effort to minimize callbacks and create
satisfied customers. Green building practices are in some ways
just good common sense. Farmers were green builders. They thought
about land use issues and how to best site the house to take
advantage of the sun in the winter yet still shield it from
sun in the summer. They thought about durability and how to conserve
energy.
My goal in building green is both practical
and philosophical. I want to minimize our footprint on the land
both locally and
globally and in doing so offer the potential homebuyer an
alternative. I hope to create a market niche where there is currently
little
or no competition.
This
journey began in 2003, as luck would have it, when an RPI professor
approached me about building
a “green
home.” His
wife had sensitivities to many chemicals and he had a personal
concern about the impact of building with conventional
materials, not just for his family but the environment as well.
My
new client knew more about building green than I did.
The path from inception to completion was a learning
process that
ultimately led me to my focus today. This focus is on
what I call environmentally responsible residential construction.
The
result is the creation of a house that is the first of
22 to be built at our Louden Ridge site in Wilton, NY.
I
believe that in the future building codes will mandate much
of what we at Capital Construction are doing now. People will
become more aware and the market will continually demand higher standards
for their homes. Remember, today’s building codes are the minimum
standard by which we build, not the pinnacle.
One
of the biggest challenges green builders face is educating
consumers.
People often asked: “What makes a house green?” I used to
respond by talking about sustainability or the need to recycle and reuse
and the
resulting benefits
to the homeowner as well as the planet. Within 20 seconds or less I was
losing my audience. I might as well been answering the question, “What
is calculus?”
However, when I talk about how we build and
the materials we use and why they make for durable, long-lasting,
low-maintenance,
energy efficient,
healthy homes I gain and retain their interest. When I tell people that
our 3,600
square
foot Saratoga Showcase of Homes show house will cost only between $1,400
and $1,600 a year to heat, cool, power and light, they listen.
Functionality.
A square house is more economical to heat because of the ratio
of floor area to exterior surface area. A house without intersecting
rooflines
(i.e., no dormers) drains water from the roof most effectively. A house
without skylights holds heat better. Water saving shower heads are
environmentally responsible. Composite building materials made
from recycled products
are sound and cost effective alternatives.
But functionality is not
enough. These homes must be attractive if we are to reach a
broad cross section of the market. They need to have
curb
appeal.
We
need to balance practical issues with aesthetics. People like roofs
with dormers not only because they break up an otherwise flat roof
plane;
they also bring
in more light to the rooms. Bump-outs and jogs in the floor plan
create private places for the homeowner to get away to and they
give the exterior
elevation
more eye appeal.
Standing
seam metal roofs may use more energy and water during the manufacturing
process but they will not
need
to be replaced for hundreds of years and will
result in fewer trips to the landfill when more conventional roofing materials
are used. Showers that are big enough to double as a car wash may be extravagant
but, let’s admit it, they sure do look like fun. Over-sized showers,
standing seam copper roofs and commercial kitchen appliances are perceived
as value in the marketplace. Value the first time around and value upon resale.
Realtors tell me that most buyers know within the first ten minutes whether
or not they will buy a house, but it takes far more than ten minutes to speak
to the value in building green.
While I believe it is our professional duty
to encourage homeowners to think about sustainable building practices we
must do so without being too dogmatic
or rigid. There are many shades of green and the market will tell us just
how green they want their houses to be.
The built environment is every bit
as important as the natural environment. If we combine good
architecture with the most sound building practices,
environmental responsibility will naturally flow.
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