Green Building Guidelines: Meeting the Demand for Low-Energy, Resource-Efficient Homes

5th Edition. — National Association of the Remodeling Industry, 2007. — 146 p.The research conducted by Building America teams improves the quality and performance of today’s home and provides valuable information for homes of the future. By supporting the development of innovative home designs, building methods, and technologies that achieve significant energy and cost savings, the Building America Program is helping to shape the future of American homes.
Since the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC) started working on the initial version of the Green Building Guidelines: Meeting the Demand for Low-Energy, Resource-Efficient Homes in 2000, much has changed. Nearly two million housing units have have been built every year. The impact of all of this construction has been positive as it rippled through the economy, helping to keep it stronger longer than could have been predicted. There has also been a down side. Consider these facts: every year constructing and operating America’s buildings generates about 25% of the total municipal solid waste stream and 48% of all greenhouse gas emissions. The industry uses over 25% of the total amount of water, and a whopping 76% of the electricity generated in the US. And our country’s insatiable appetite for energy to power these new homes keeps increasing, which results in more and more air pollution. An unprecedented number of natural disasters, wildfires, tornadoes, and most notably Hurricane Katrina, have damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, many of which still await final demolition before being taken off to the landfill. During the same six year period, the green phenomenon has taken firm hold nationally, touching many aspects of our lives: from everyday purchases such as organic foods and hybrid cars to the more heady concept proposed by economists and environmentalists to quantify the US green Gross Domestic Product. Green magazines and e-newsletters are springing up everywhere. Coverage in top national newspapers such as The New York Times, the LA Times, and The Washington Post is regular and in-depth. Cover stories and entire issues devoted to green are found in Time, Newsweek, CNN Money, Vanity Fair, and Good Housekeeping.
The construction and home building sectors are no exception. The green home building movement, which applies environmentally sensitive design and construction techniques to reduce energy and water consumption and improve residential comfort and safety, has moved rapidly into the mainstream. By 2005, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) had already held its fourth annual green building conference called “Greening the American Dream.” That same year, NAHB published the Model Green Home Building Guidelines and the accompanying Green Home Building Checklist designed as a tool kit for local associations that wanted to create their own customized green home building programs. NAHB’s goal to move environmentally-friendly home building concepts further into the mainstream marketplace continues to be a high priority in 2007.