January 12, 2009
by Environmental Building Strategies
in Green Building, Uncategorized
Tags: Building Green, climate, climate change, Green Building, sustainability
What do we mean by green building?
Buildings of the world consume:
• 40% of the world’s energy & materials
• 25% of the wood harvested
• 17% of our water
The average American house uses:
• 13,127 board feet of lumber
• 6,212 square feet of sheathing
• 2,000 square feet of flooring
In the U.S., buildings account for:
• 36% of total electricity consumption
• 62% of electricity use
• 30% of greenhouse gas emissions
• 37% of ozone depletion potential
The kicker — Americans spend 90% of our time indoors.
This is not a sustainable lifestyle. We can not function as a society this way. In order to survive and allow our kids the ability to survive, we must refocus our attention. This way of life is literally killing us.
The environmental impact we see is the direct result of our habits. We have habitually built unsustainably and raped our resources. And the stuff we’ve seen in documentaries such as Inconvenient Truth is a direct result of the building industry. Let me repeat that and make sure to read this slowly – Architects, builders, contractors and engineers are the direct cause of our climate crisis.
Now I realize that is a bold statement – but shoving polluted air into a building and specifying highly toxic carpeting and using violently dangerous paints, coatings and adhesives is no ones fault but our own. “The rise in energy costs, shortage of building materials and growing consumer demands are driving this market to seek out better and more efficient ways to build our buildings. In addition, new legislation, stricter building codes, and rising health costs are forcing builders to build green whether they want to or not.”
At the same time these are the people who can empower the change we need to see. Architects, engineers, and construciton professionals can affect great change to our environment and have the ability to “tip” us into a sustainable society.
“Green building (also known as “sustainable,” “ecological,” and “eco-designed”) is a way of looking at buildings in terms of reducing energy use, conserving water, improving indoor air quality, and reducing dependence on our natural resources.”
Doesn’t that sound nice – living in a nicer, cleaner, more healthy environment? Or does choking on forced air from archaic HVAC systems sound fun? I’ll let you decide…
December 26, 2008
by Environmental Building Strategies
in Green Building
Tags: Blogs, Building Green, Christmas, Consulting, Eco Community, Green Building, Home Improvement, Paint, VOC
Merry Christmas! And Happy Quanza, Hanukkah and the rest.
I want to be in the giving spirit during this holiday season so I’ve decided to provide you with a breadth of resources instead of some politically or environmentally charged post.
So I recently came across a great company and their blog – Seville Consulting Blog. Great source of information and the author Carl is a leader in the industry. Contact him if you are going green in the Southeast United States.
Although not up and running quite yet, our friends at Building Green have started a new website called Green Building Advisor which looks like a promising resource for public information. Set to launch at the International Builders Show in Vegas on January 20-23 (oh and Environmental Building Strategies will be there so find us!).
Green Eco Communities is a newer website listing all environmentally friendly places to live in the US divided up by state. While this will be an incredible task for them to continually update and be subjective with, they are on the right path and we applaud them.
One of the most popular and longer running daily blogs out there is Jetson Green. I like the name more than anything as one of my best friends is named Jetzen (except my buddy spells it cooler). But seriously these guys post daily and are a breadth of knowledge.
A rarely ever discussed subject is the alternative wall coverings that exist out there. Today it seems like everyone is talking about Low and No VOC paints which is fine and dandy but at the end of the day, paint sucks. So do something unique with your interior or exterior space. Use a plaster technique like Venetian Plaster or Stucco.
However if you truly want a unique wall covering that is easy to apply and looks amazing, check out Wara Juraku which is a Japanese wall covering mainly consisting of natural materials such as sand, seaweed, and straw.
Cool companies to check out Green Fusion in San Rafael
and Eco Home Improvement in Berkeley
WikiHow is a good resource for DIY information and they have a great category on Sustainable Living that is worth a look if you are into greening your lifestyle.
Look for more tips coming in the new year as Environmental Building Strategies ramps up its campaign to change building and LEED the way towards a sustainable tomorrow.
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