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The Green Column

by Lance Fletcher, AIA, LEED AP

Over the last year or so, the visibility and importance of housing of all kinds has resurfaced within the green building movement. The number of green home building programs, policies and resources has grown significantly all over the country.

For anyone concerned about the environmental impacts of buildings, this attention to residential buildings is a very good thing, not least because of the amount of residential construction projected to occur over the next generation. Reporting on a Brookings Institution study by Arthur C. Nelson, V.O. Schinnerer states that “most of the space (over 100 billion square feet) built between 2000 and 2030 will be residential space.” (See Toward a New Metropolis: The Opportunity to Rebuild America at www.brook.edu.) Because of this and because many of us in Maine are residential architects, The Green Column will focus on green homes in 2006.

Since the late 90s, the visible emphasis in sustainable design has been on commercial/institutional buildings, in part because these were the building types on which LEED focused for market transformation. That transformation has indeed caught the attention of the industry, including the architectural profession.

Historically, however, it was with single family homes, both custom and production, that much of the current green building movement began in the United States during the late 80s and early 90s. With single family homes, individual homeowners, architects and builders could incorporate more efficient systems and materials and could innovate at a manageable scale in order to soften their impact on the natural environment and reduce their operating costs. At the community level, local home builders associations (HBA’s) in progressive places like Denver, Austin and Seattle developed the first green home building programs, complete with checklists, guidelines and certifications. (All of these programs have grown and are still in place, by the way.)

These days the subject of green homes covers all scales from single family detached to high rises and all categories from custom to commercial production to affordable. This month’s column will attempt to give a quick overview of what is happening. Subsequent columns will take a closer look at selected issues, programs and projects.

From the early 90s, there have been local and regional green certification programs, designed to assure owners and buyers that their homes would have less negative environmental impact than “standard” models. Some of these were developed by or in cooperation with local HBA’s, others were developed by local, regional and state governments. The number of such programs continues to grow at a rapid pace.

An excellent example of a local program right in our own “neighborhood” is the Vermont Builds Greener (VBG) Program, a project of Vermont’s Building for Social Responsibility and the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC) (see www.bsr-vt.org/vermontbuiltgreenprogram.html). The VBG is currently in the late stages of a 15 home pilot program. VBG has been recognized from its outset as a thoughtful and rigorous set of standards. Until recently, VBG was the only set of green standards which rewards for size—or, more accurately, for lack of size—and which penalizes excessive size. As the pilot finishes, VBG will be put on hold while LEED for Homes is evaluated as an alternative. In the meantime, Peter Schneider of the VEIT tells us that the program is downloaded several times every day by users all over the world.

In response to the interest of its local chapters—and the success of local programs as marketing tools—the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) in 2004 assembled a group of stakeholders and developed the NAHB Model Green Home Building Guidelines (www.nahb.org or call 800.368.5242 x8290), a 200-page book, which includes guidelines for design and construction, a point system, and extensive lists of resources tied to each guideline. The NAHB Guidelines are intended primarily for local/regional HBA’s to use in setting up their own programs, and in that they seem to be having success. NAHB’s Ken Ford says that in 2005-2006 alone they expect 15-20 new programs to be started. The NAHB Guidelines can also be used as a checklist/resource by individual designers and builders.

For several years, the USGBC has been working on LEED for Homes, an assessment and certification program for residential buildings ranging from single family to low-rise multifamily homes. Released in draft form in September ’05, this program is now in the pilot phase. Unlike previous versions of LEED, LEED for Homes will be administered by local/regional providers. The Northeast Team (essentially New England) is headed by Richard Faesy of VEIT, and Maine’s representative is Fore Solutions in Portland (207.347.5066). Based on commitments and interest shown to date, four to six pilot projects are expected in Maine. Anyone interested in registering a project should contact Danuta Drozdowicz at Fore Solutions. The pilot version of LEED for Homes can be downloaded from the USGBC at www.usgbc.org.

In addition to these national green homes assessment programs, there are educational resources available, such as the Sustainable Building Industries Council’s (www.sbicouncil.org) Green Building Guidelines: Meeting the Demand for Low-Energy, Resource-Efficient Homes, 4th Edition. There are also government and private sector programs all over the country to encourage green home building. These range from the Maine State Housing Authority’s Green Building Guidelines to programs in Atlanta, Florida, California and points in between. There is also an international green home design competition, where the winning design will be constructed. The competition is run by C2C Home, which hopes to launch it’s second competition in 2006 (see www.c2c-home.org).

During 2006 we will examine some of these efforts in more detail. We also hope to look at some exemplary green residential projects—especially in Maine. If you have a green house on the boards (screen?), under construction or already occupied that you would like to have featured, please let me know at lfletcher@rcn.com. The homes of the Pine Tree State are getting greener. Let’s celebrate that fact!

Upcoming Events of Interest:


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