Green Building Booms in ColoradoEnergy-Efficient, "Wise Design" Homes on the Rise
By Sandy Dorr, Serra Construction
Green building, the construction of energy-efficient homes that meet environmental standards, is booming in Colorado, with no letup in sight.
"Colorado continues to be the largest residential green homebuilding program in the country," says Traci D'Alessio, coordinator of Built Green® Colorado. The state program, started in 1995, sets criteria based on a rigorous checklist of 200 features - under standards for energy efficiency, materials, health and safety, resource conservation and certifies builders who meet them. Over 25,000 certified Built Green homes have been built in Colorado, the majority on the Front Range, with a handful on the Western Slope.
"It's evolving very fast," DAlessio explains. "People are jumping onto the bandwagon in greater and greater numbers."
D'Alessio believes that historically, American homes were in many ways better built. "People used to build intuitively, for their climate," she says. "Look at older homes. In Florida, for example, they were raised off the ground, for cooling."
But she believes the building boom that followed World War II encouraged" quick product" houses, where thousands of lookalike homes were rapidly constructed, losing the quality and detail of earlier American architecture.
The 1960s', however, brought about more holistic, natural building, attention to resources, awareness of the depleted American forests, logged for over 150 years, and the rise of solar-powered homes. The energy crisis of the 1970s' spurred builders to investigate new forms of energy efficiency, says DAlessio, and by the mid-90s', large production home builders jumped into what was once a small niche in the industry to begin constructing energy-efficient homes. Home Builders Associations (HBAs), builders and developers began integrating green building tools and principles into their projects.
In 1995, the EPA's Energy Star program, known for scoring appliances based on their energy use, instituted an energy rating scale for builders in order to identify highly efficient homes. Roughly 5,000 Energy Star-approved homes have gone up in Colorado to date, out of 350,000 nation-wide, according to Patty Crow, head of Energy Star's Region 8 in Denver.
Moreover, Denver, together with Houston, Las Vegas and Washington, D.C. has been recently selected for an Energy Star pilot program that will require builders to meet more stringent indoor air standards. Crow's excited about the program, saying, "It's very needed."
The American Lung Association points out that with 36 million Americans suffering from allergies or asthmas, indoor air quality concerns are becoming more important. Americans spend 65% of their time in their homes, yet indoor pollutant levels can be two to five times higher than outside.
More and more Colorado homeowners, meanwhile, are asking: what exactly is green building, what does it cost, and what are the benefits? Some brief answers:
• Energy efficient homes. A green-built house may cost 1-2% more in overall price. It saves the consumer money, however, due to its energy efficiency, with a minimum of 30% less cost on utility bills. This can take the form of low-E windows, solar-smart design, indoor moisture management that prevents mold, efficient lighting, tight construction, new and advanced forms of insulation, and carefully designed foundations.
• make a house last substantially longer. It requires less maintainance, and its certified status virtually guarantees a higher resale value, as well as the possibility of a "green mortgage."
• Healthy homes. Green building uses less toxic materials, increases air quality, keeps temperatures consistent throughout the house, and tightly seals the building "envelope" to keep out pollutants. All paints, for example, release trace amounts of gases for months, and many lumber products contain formaldehyde, but green builders may select low or no-VOC paint, alternative woods and low-toxic adhesives and sealants.
• Wise design. One of the major developments that has issued from several decades of green building is building science, a fairly new field in which builders study how to apply the rigor of science to residential construction. Amongst the new ideas reshaping construction over the last decade is the concept of looking at the house as a whole system, rather than a set of systems. A house is not considered separate from its environment; the systems within the house (structural, electrical, heating and cooling) don't function separately from each other, and the inhabitants are not separate from the building plan.
Rather, in what is called "whole house," "integrated," or "wise" design, the house is seen as a complex, living entity. Architect, builder, subcontractors and suppliers team up more closely throughout the design and construction process to ensure that the different parts of the home work well together, and are, as well, aesthetically beautiful.
• Environmental impact. Green building, overall, reduces the negative impact of building on the environment both in the process of construction and in the use of the building over its lifetime.
Green built homes may use less water due to water-saving fixtures, water re-use, landscaping techniques, and precise irrigation systems, preserving our rivers and aquifers.
Most importantly, green building has brought about a huge transition from solid-sawn lumber to engineered wood products, made from younger, smaller trees. This dramatically reduces the volume of wood required to frame a new home, which lessens impact on the remaining North American forests.
For more information on the web, view the following: Colorado New Home Choices, Colorado Energy Star Homes, Health House, Built Green, Building Science.