What Is Green Building?

Unless you’re colorblind, I’m sure you’ve recognized that the trendy color in the home building world today is definitely “green.” It’s in every building industry magazine, most DIY and HGTV programs, and builders, architects, homeowner’s, and everyone in between are talking “green this and green that”. But what is “Green Building?” It’s a term that gets use quite often with a varying degree of connotation and there are as many definitions of “Green Building” as there are shades of the color.

Simply stated it’s making conscious choices to positively impact the energy and resource efficiency in all facets of construction. Ok, so what does that mean? Basically, from the inception of design all the way to landscaping, making sure that consideration is given to mitigating the effects that you will have on the environment and natural resources.

It doesn’t have to be straw bales and solar panels, it’s as simple as orienting the house on the site and proper placement of windows to take full advantage of solar gain and minimize heat loss. It’s designing a house that isn’t too large so it’s easy to heat and cool and uses less material. It’s having a heating and cooling system that is the correct size for the house and ensuring that it’s properly installed and tested. It’s making smart choices for building materials like engineered lumber, pre-manufactured trusses, low E windows, or material with recycled content. It’s conserving water by using drought tolerant plants in your landscaping, low-flow shower heads, and locating your hot water heater close to the point of use. It’s taking care to make sure the air in your home is healthy, both by choosing to use materials guaranteed to be low in volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) and ensuring adequate ventilation and fresh air exchange. It’s reducing and recycling construction waste through onsite and off site recycling, but more importantly it’s all of things together.

The concept behind many successful Green Building Programs is taking a holistic approach to building the home and thinking about all of the choices and systems in the home prior to ever moving the first bucket of dirt. In a sense, “green” building is nothing more than “good” building. For more information on Green Building and techniques to integrate it into your next project visit the Missoula Green Building Initiative at www.missoulagbi.com.