Home > What is Green Building?

The Fundamentals

Despite more awareness about green building, there is still a lot of confusion about exactly what green building is. For most experts, there are five main characteristics that define it:

• Having an environmentally friendly site or "footprint." Some of the factors involved are orientation of the house to maximize natural sunlight for heat and light, as well as shade for cooling. As a result, the home's furnace and air conditioning don't have to work as hard to maintain a comfortable house. Another goal is making a minimal impact on the area in which the house is built. Forget clear-cutting the entire lot; take down only the trees and bushes that would interfere with construction. The remaining trees can help cool the house in the summer and act as a windbreak in the winter. And locating the home near shopping and other services will keep the amount of driving down — a win for the entire environment.

• Using energy efficient designs and materials while building a "tighter" home to prevent HVAC loss. The use of sunlight and shade for heating and cooling is as old as mankind, but there are designs and materials specifically designed to keep the house nearly air-tight. With less outside air infiltrating the home, the indoor climate is much easier to control. LED lights use a fraction of regular incandescent bulbs, while Energy Star appliances are certified to meet strict guidelines about how much electricity they require to operate.

• Reducing a home's water consumption through low-flow fixtures. It's true that the earliest low-flow plumbing fixtures caused problems for some homeowners, but today's versions are as good, if not better, than the old water hogs. One technology is the incorporation of air into the process; the result is a low-flow shower that feels just as strong as the one using much more water.

• Promoting a healthy indoor air environment. Yes, air-tight houses are critical to energy efficiency, but an unwelcome result is indoor air quality that is five times more polluted than the air outdoors. Fresh-air ventilation is often used to exhaust the stale indoor air to the outside, bring in fresh air and conserve energy.

• Emphasizing material conservation and waste reduction while using sustainable products in design and construction. With modular construction, you typically have 30 percent more material that goes into the home with 30 percent less waste. Not surprisingly, "green" modular homes for sustainable living using renewable products and resources are growing in popularity. Another form of waste reduction is recycling job-site waste and using it for mulch in the newly planted yard.

Bonus Points

Building a modular home versus a standard "site-built" home makes green certification easier. In all, the modular process takes care of about 10 percent of the points toward certification, which puts modular construction ahead of the curve compared to a site builder.

By nature, modular homes are generally better-sealed, and the modular process itself minimizes waste. Modular manufacturers receive much of the wood pre-cut to length and then have programs for recycling the extra, which also earns points. A lot of the materials that the modular manufacturer is already using are green, even though they aren't necessarily marketed that way.

With consumers hyper-sensitive to energy costs while becoming more environmentally conscious in general, most observers agree that green is the color of the future for builders and buyers, alike. Eventually, the home-buying public is going to demand that their homes be built this way.