shades of green

There's a lot of buzz these days about being green, and for the most part that's a good thing. But defining what's green and what's not is a pretty subjective task. With all the noise and claims of Eco friendliness out there, it can get difficult to see the trees for the forest.

When it comes to "green building" in progressive Ithaca, there are many shades to choose from. Living roofs, straw bale walls, local lumber, low VOC paints and finishes, residential solar and wind installations, and more. As I look around me at what other folks in the green building business are doing to reduce their impact on the environment, I can't help but wonder if we ourselves are doing enough?

This is the question that lead to this post... My first thought is, hmm well, maybe not, after all we've never created an earthen floor for a customer and we frequently use materials produced from far away.... But with further consideration I think, well, it depends on who we are building for. Not every customer is willing to make the aesthetic leap to rough cut siding with no paint, regardless of the benefits. It's true, what clients are willing to spend their hard earned dollars on is as big a factor as any in what green materials and methods we are able to utilize on a given project. And then I think, ...hang on a second there buddy, maybe we're doing just fine, and perhaps our part on the Ithaca green building pallet is just as important as all the others.

So, what is it that we are actually doing, you ask?

Well our unique shade of green building comes from knowing how to design, and build lower Eco-footprint, highly energy efficient, affordable homes. Homes that require less material and energy to create up front, and therefore less energy and money to operate or maintain over the long haul. Point in fact, we recently we were involved in the construction of an Energy Star rated 3 bedroom, 2 bath home with around 1,200 sq' of interior living space. That's less than half the size of the average new home built in the Northeast these days. This particular design, dubbed "Habitat" by it's designer, Ithaca resident Rod Lambert, is all about getting more home out of less resources. Utilizing proven design elements such as window placement that optimizes winter solar gain while reducing summer heat build up, exterior walls built of SIP panels, as well as a floating slab with radiant heat are just some of the ways we get the green effect going.

The family that moved into this house we recently worked on, told me that the Energy Star assessment team came by recently. Apparently during the process of checking out the house's energy saving characteristics, the technician who did the "blower door test" (the test that checks for air infiltration) said that she had never had a house rate so well . That made me smile.

It's true that sometimes I feel a little guilty that we are not doing more obviously green projects like building living roofs and such (though we have in the past!), but then I remember what we are doing for the cause, and I feel pretty good about our part. After all there are many shades of green that make up the forest and each one is integral to the whole.

rob