photo by Ian Britton @
FreeFoto.com

Posted 4/24/09 by Yasha Husain

According to Nate Blair, Senior Energy Analyst/Group Manager at NREL, who wrote to this site's author regarding alternative energy options for the Southeast of the US, including wind, solar and biofuels, "the best and most important thing to do in the southeast is energy efficiency. Improved insulation, high-efficiency air-conditioning, solar water heating, high-efficiency appliances, more stringent building codes (requiring greater insulation, pre-wiring and pre-plumbing for solar, 2 or 3 pane windows, etc.) is probably going to help significantly."

Eventually, both energy efficiency and renewables will become important parts of the energy mix.

Blair believes, "In the near-term, a mix of natural gas and coal will be used to moderate the grid-impacts of renewables (in the Southeast).

In the long-run, electricity storage and load-management can be used to moderate these as well."

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For more information about green and earth building,
visit:

US Green Building Council

National Association of Home Builders

EPA's Listing of Funding Opportunities

Green Building
at Wikipedia

EarthArchitecture.org

Cal-Earth

Article - Architecture

Voluntary Green Building Is Starting To Get Noticed
By Yasha Husain
First appeared in Glens Falls Business Journal February 2004

Major U.S. markets are usually reluctant to make changes when what's selling isn't broke, especially if there's no pressure to do so. In which case, when the green building movement began to grow in the early 1990s promoting a new building philosophy that is sensible and environmentally-conscious, not many builders or buyers took note.

However, a decade later, increasing numbers of political and industrial leaders are acknowledging the value of green building for the environment, health reasons, and the economy. And recent government rulings that endorse and / or mandate builders to build green, combined with green building tax credits for builders and buyers, are beginning to affect the marketplace.

Though the majority of green building regulations are voluntary, government officials have begun pointing to green building certification rating systems and directing state builders to meet the standards. Governor Pataki did this in June 2001 when he announced Executive Order 111, which directs government entities, and encourages all builders, to comply with green building regulations. The Order identifies The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority as the organization responsible for drafting up-to-date guidelines for New York State builders to meet the new standards. NYSERDA also assists in administering statewide programs, and provides technical and financial assistance to people interested in green building.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of green building, in its purest sense it involves looking at the big picture of building and design, in a way working backwards from the conventional way of doing things. For instance, rather than first selecting a site on a plot of land on which to build, one would consider the important features of the land, like streams, hills, and trees, and then choose a building site that would best preserve the natural habitat, integrating the environment with the building. Green builders must consider how to create community living space, open space, water savings, high air quality, conservation lighting, ventilation and heating systems, modes of transportation, and, parking, up front so they meet green building standards. In the building phase green building materials are durable, nontoxic, local, if possible, and renewable. This saves potential buyers the headaches that come from the toxins used in paints and adhesives in conventional homes, as well as time and money. Finally, the buildings are not aesthetically different from conventional homes, although they are perhaps more comfortable.

Two area builders who are leading the way in green building innovations have already worked with NYSERDA on designing or constructing green building projects.

Bob Joy, from JMZ Architects in Glens Falls, in addition to being involved in local projects such as the YMCA and the old Woolworth Theatre, specializes in college and university work, including the SUNY system. Since the state colleges are government-affiliated institutions, they are subject to Executive Order 111, which mandates the buildings be certifiable at the silver level of the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design certification system (LEEDS). LEEDS is the nationally accepted rating system designed by the United States Green Builders Council, a coalition of leaders from across the building industry.

In order to keep down the cost levels of building green, NYSERDA doesn't require each institution to pay to get certified through LEEDS, but it does require they keep on file all paperwork from the construction phase that proves buildings are LEEDS certifiable.

"We're working with all the SUNY and community campuses and the LEEDS program is quite a big part of that now. For new designs, the Executive Order says we have to meet the silver level of the LEEDS program but we don't need to receive official certification," said Joy.

Two years ago, JMZ Architects with its client Cayuga Community College, received a $250,000 New Construction grant from NYSERDA to build a two-story addition with an atrium at the James T. Walsh Regional Economic Center, for which it installed a geothermal heating system. Though the Center was not originally designed to be a green building per se, this type of heating system is an advanced green building technology that saves a substantial amount of energy in the life-cycle of the building. It involves drilling multiple wells and developing sufficient contact with the earth to run polyethylene tubes down into the earth. The openings are then filled with a clay mixture, and it is used as a heating pump. The pump is just like a refrigerator; it will either run or reject heat based on the thermostat.

The firm's next project of this kind, for which there will also be NYSERDA funding, will be for the Empire State College Foundation, to be located where the old Grand Union is in Saratoga Springs. This project will pair the geothermal heating system with an under-floor air distribution cooling and heating system. The under-floor system uses a raised floor and allows the air to circulate in the plenum, or below the floor, instead of having a duct system.

Joy first used JMZ's office space as a test site for this system and found that in addition to conserving energy, it made rewiring equipment in the office easier, and enhanced the look of the office space. The under-floor system is cost-effective and one of the newest technologies to enhance energy efficiency.

"We think voluntary green building regulations are a very positive trend and we're working very hard to respond to it. Because our market is the institutional market it is looking at the long term and is more able to justify the higher costs of geothermal heating up-front in exchange for lower operating costs called life-cycle costing. I think when technologies are improving all of the time, and the effectiveness and efficiency are demonstrated, green building will trickle down to others," added Joy.

Frank Lasky, from Capital Construction in Ballston Spa, is another staunch supporter of green building, and a local leader in the green building movement.

Aside from building green homes for clients in the Capital Region, Lasky has been working as a volunteer for two years with the Capital Region Builders and Remodeling Association, and the National Association of Home Builders on creating a Capital Region green building program. Local green building guidelines backed by the NAHB have been adopted for home building, while LEEDS remains the national rating system offered by the USGBC for commercial buildings.

With funding from NYSERDA for the developmental phases of the local program, Lasky and a small group of volunteers have so far drafted certification guidelines, a green building product list, and have completed a parade of homes in Saratoga Springs. Next Lasky will build a single family demonstration home in April. It will be the first home that goes up during the construction of a conservation subdivision in Wilton, to be called Loudon Ridge. The work he does there will be well-documented and used to assist the area volunteers in refining their current list of guidelines and product list and to rule out any potential, programmatic difficulties.

Lasky is one of the devotees of the local program and hopes it gets up and running soon. "I think that in the future green building regulations for homes are going to be mandated by law. For now, it's like changing the way builders think about how they build, similar to the way the big three auto manufacturers were eventually forced to rethink the way they rebuilt cars so they became more energy efficient," he commented.

To date, there are no mandated laws requiring homes and commercial builders to build green, and so, many aren't.

According to Margo Thompson, a research associate at the NAHB Research Center, the costs to build a green building home are 3 to 5 percent more than a conventional home. Costs vary depending on what the buyer is willing to spend for some of the more advanced green building technologies. Overtime buyers will likely earn money back on their investment with sharp energy savings, tax breaks, and higher resale value.

Lasky and Thompson agree that not many people know what green building is or that they have a choice. People need to be educated on what their options are. It may be that the bigger companies are simply uneducated about the benefits of green building and the New York State tax breaks potentially available to them. Perhaps they have the misconception that it is much more expensive to build green.

Green building still means different things to different people. Often, it means less than the big picture. As regulations begin to be mandated, a lot of organizing is in progress to bring people together on the issues, financial and environmental. The majority of green building advocates think voluntary, and not involuntary, regulations make the most sense right now.

But, in the future, advocates of green building will call for the creation of additional cash incentives for builders and buyers, as well as public awareness regarding the issues, including educating builders, developers and buyers alike about the benefits of building green. More change will have to take place before the way we do business is ultimately transformed.