The EcoBlog

There’s an increasing buzz around green building – and for good reason. There are many benefits to revamping your home using the tools of the green building trade, including financial savings, improved home health, upgraded appearance, and increased value. If you are considering a remodel, it’s worth taking a look at the benefits of remodeling green.

by Sam Hagerman, Hammer & Hand. In the spirit of collaboration we have recently made available our company’s Best Practices Manual — a guidebook of field-tested construction details, many shaped by our high performance building and Passive House construction experience.

Part I: Is Solar Smart?
To understand our approach to net zero energy building (aka zero energy building, net positive building, zero energy ready building, etc.), it’s helpful to look at how we understand “sustainability” in the built realm. As builders, Hammer & Hand’s first connection with sustainability comes through durability. The most fundamental form of sustainability is to build to last. In John Ruskin’s words:

“When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for.”

Ruskin captures the notion that we should be building for future generations.

This concern with the future impact of what we build today also infuses our second connection with sustainability: concern about climate change. The pie chart below from Architecture 2030, based on data from the US Energy Information Administration, shows that nearly half of US carbon dioxide emissions comes from our buildings.

So, as builders, we have both the responsibility and the opportunity to be part of the climate solution, to help transform the ways our buildings perform.

How do you define home? For Ma & Pa Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie, home was four walls and a roof that protected them from the elements. However, today’s home is much more than that – it is a sanctuary, a place to build community, to work, to play, as well as a place to express who we are and the values by which we live.

It is this last attribute that seems to be at the epicenter of today’s homebuyers shopping list. We are not talking about gingerbread window trims or turret shaped entries but rather how energy/water-efficient a home is as well as how easy it is to maintain – in an essence, how our homes impact the environment as well as our wallets and what that says about us as consumers.

Tani Creek Farm in the Pacific Northwest uses sunlight for more than just growing vegetables. In the misty hills of Bainbridge Island, across Puget Sound from Seattle, Washington, a 25-acre biodynamic farm uses solar power for all its agricultural needs such as irrigation, water movement (pumped from ponds to other uses) and food production, as well as for residential purposes. Jeff Collum of Sound Power, the electrical contractor who installed the 29-kilowatt system, explains that people are often shocked to hear that the Seattle area has 70 percent of the harvestable solar power of Los Angeles. Contrary to popular belief, solar power in the cloudy Pacific Northwest - where Bainbridge is located - is a viable energy alternative to fossil fuels. Only half joking, he says that in Germany they “hang PVs on everything in the sun that doesn’t move” and points out that Germany’s solar resource – except for a very small area - is inferior to the marine Pacific Northwest.

There is nothing like the great outdoors.
Bringing the outside in is a design trend that continues to gain momentum - from outdoor kitchens and three-season patios/decks to textural tiles that mimic natural stone and includes patterns from nature such as leaves and flowers. Additionally, designers and homeowner alike are using color in wall finishes, flooring and countertops to create a seamless transition between indoor and outdoor environments.

Beneath the veneer of many newly crafted homes and crusty old dwellings, hidden dangers often lurk, undetected, in the folds of our daily lives, including icky biological stuff such as mold and dust mites and scary chemicals like invisible radon gas, volatile organic compounds, and formaldehyde. Homeowners Bryan and Tricia Smith uncovered such villains after a remodeling project in their former Yakima, Wash., home. It prompted a voyage of discovery into the world of materials, systems, and diet -- and the creation of a new home built “green” from the ground up.

As of December 2009, the city’s new Backyard Cottage ordinance allows Seattle homeowners to build a second dwelling unit in their backyard. Why? Backyard Cottages provide affordable city living, housing flexibility, family-friendly housing options for extended families, and contribute to sustainable urban density.

Lead-based paint was used in more than 38 million homes until it was banned for residential use in 1978. For those renting, buying or renovating a pre-1978 home, receiving a copy of the EPA's Lead Pamphlet is federal law, and duly warns against things like letting your children chew on the windowsills.

Lead has been shown to affect children's brains and developing nervous systems, causing reduced IQ, learning disabilities, and behavioral problems, and is also harmful to adults. Lead in dust, which is often invisible, is the most common way people are exposed to lead.

Lead-based paint was used in more than 38 million homes until it was banned for residential use in 1978. For those renting, buying or renovating a pre-1978 home, receiving a copy of the EPA's Lead Pamphlet is federal law, and duly warns against things like letting your children chew on the windowsills.

Lead has been shown to affect children's brains and developing nervous systems, causing reduced IQ, learning disabilities, and behavioral problems, and is also harmful to adults. Lead in dust, which is often invisible, is the most common way people are exposed to lead.

How can your choice of a clothes washer affect the quality of air inside your house? Of all the decisions made during a residential construction project, this one seems trivial. However, in modern houses, individual elements are related in ways that you may not think about at first. Getting the complete picture requires that you think about the "house as a system".

Systems thinking is essential to design and build a home that is energy efficient, comfortable, durable, and healthy for people and the planet.