Green Building Suite for Professionals
If Taunton were to build a green building product for professional builders, architects, code officials, and subcontractors, what would it look like?
What features would it contain?
What tools would need to be included?
What tools and features would it be nice to include?
–Dan
Senior editor
Replies
Geez. I don't know what happened to the other message, let me try this again.
When you say "suite" and "product", do you mean discussion forum? Periodical designed to stimulate information - either online or in print?
Features? - I'd say a reading list, and a stimulating forum for discussing what's been read. Easier said than done, but that would be great.
A listing of interested building professionals along with contact information. Customers are willing to consider building using green principles. We as an industry, are dropping the ball with a lack of leadership when they have questions.
What do you have in mind, Dan?
Ever wonder why "holistic" doesn't start with "w"?
Edited 1/6/2008 12:08 pm ET by jimblodgett
Right now what I have in mind Jim, is another bowl of chili. But I've already had about five bowls and I'm starting to get really, really full.It'll be a website built for pros. I suspect a consumer area will be helpful to pros in educating their customers, but we're looking to serve building professionals. Maybe I should have phrased the question like ths: Green building seems to be on its way to being mandated in many parts of the country. As builders, architects, subcontractors and code officials, what are your biggest challenges in green building, and how can we help? You mean Wholistic isn't spelled with a "w"?
Uh-oh.Dan MorrisonSenior editor
My two centsBiggest problem is getting builders to run the scoring tool in the design process and have it filled out and a list of the evidence they will need to collect before they start construction. Otherwise they finish up the process and go to apply for the green certification and they have no proof that they re-cycled any cardboard or how much of what they sent to the landfill or what g/l VOC the paint was and they have to ask the certifier to accept a signature as proof and they get turned down and nobodies happy. Show them how to organize their evidence collection and improve communication with the third party certifier.Second is "value engineering green". Some green building practices are the same or even less expensive than the conventional alternative. Some are considerably more expensive. Builders have a tendency to "just throw money at it" and then complain about how outrageously expensive it is. Showcase guys like Danny Winters at Cimarron Construction in Durham who is building certified green and Energy Star homes and selling them LAND INCLUDED for $158,000. A series on low-cost and mass production green showing the scoring tools for BOTH NAHB-green and LEED-h along with the full Energy Star reports with the blower door test and the emission report would be great. Third any case study house you use really needs to be accompanied by all three of the above scoring tools so people can see how they relate to each other. As a NAHB-green proponent I'd also like to see disclosure on the cost of the three programs above. (on our last project I paid $850 for the full Energy Star package plus $150 for the NAHB-green certification and was quoted but chose not to spend $3,000 for the LEED-h certification. My understanding is that LEED-h is coming down in price and that the newest version of LEED-h is far, far superior to the earlier version (if only because they made Manual D optional.) Fourth, an explanation of how Life Cycle Analysis tools can be used to make sense of the various options on the market and how to mine existing information about materials already available on LCA websites. Perhaps this info could be consolidated and made available on the new website. Fifth, an ongoing analysis of building systems including ICFs SIPs panelization systems, and prefab homes from a green building perspective including a cost to value analysis. (don't tell me about an ICF foundation without letting me know what it would have cost to create a similar product with block and foam.) Sixth, ongoing discussion of the business of building green, If this site is for pros lets talk about how you sell the advantages of green, how you communicate the advantages in your market, how you position your company in relation to other builders in your market, and how you apply the concept of sustainability to how you fit in your community and how you treat your employees and trade partners (suppliers and subs).Seventh, information on which trade group green certification are more meaningful than others. The cabinet industry has a green certification program that is essentially meaningless. the carpet industry has a really good one. there are lots of different thoughts on the American Tree Farm certification, (I think it's completely fine) lots people in the industry feel that FSC is an extortion racket. Eighth, information that empowers buyers to dig through the green hype to the underlying characteristics of the available products and systems. If we can accept 50 or even 100 grams per liter VOC as the threshold for low VOC paint and 300 g/l as the threshold for oil based varnish then people can read the label rather than be sold the "Harmony" brand LOW voc product that may be much more expensive and not as good as the 50 gpm "Builders Masterpiece" right next to it. If they understand the ASHRAE 62.2 goals they may not buy into the computer interconnected bath fan system that costs a lot of money and doesn't really accomplish anything worthwhile. (in my humble opinion)Finally I think there are a number of 'hot button issues' that cause a lot of conflict and dissension within the industry. I'm talking about:
sealed crawls,
MAD air, and crawl pressurization with conditioned air,
value of taping the poly in a sealed crawl,
rain screens and rain screen house wrap combos,
sealed attics,
Asphalt shingle performance with sealed attics,
spray foam vs fiberglass,
geothermal heatpump maintenance problems,
calling water source "pump and dump" heatpumps "geothermal",
Ashrae 62.2,
Pressurizing the building envelope,
energy recovery ventilators,
the Incandescent-CFL-LED succession plan,
use of dimmers as an energy saving strategy,
open faced fireplaces as an indoor air quality issue (if we automatically exclude homes with open fireplaces from green certification should we also automatically exclude homes with doggy doors? Dogs are arguable as much of an indoor air quality issue as fireplaces),
"optimistic" SEER ratings on ultra high performance (esp. variable speed) heatpumps,
"optimistic" efficiency ratings of modulating boilers and water heaters.
real world energy usage of non-solar radiant floor systems,
embodied energy content of organic beer vs. organic bourbon,
American tree farm certified vs. local vs. FSC hardwoods vs. bamboo from Asia.
Embodied child labor content and embodied energy content of imported building materials. I'm sure there's more.------------------
"You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."
One experience I’ve had with talking to other tradesmen in the field is a feeling that choosing to do green building is a political choice as opposed to a new standard of building. In turn creating a reluctance to learn about the changes that are coming to the industry at all levels. And a lot of the literature about on this can be a lot of self righteous “save the world†stuff, very unappealing to those trying to just make a buck. Not to diminish the importance of these new standards.With that said new standards means new and changed products and techniques. So a “suite†that is less about why you should and more about the how its done, technical information that helps the trades with the changes in the numbers in both a cost of business and building code wise. IMHO I see this change happening at the same rate as the PC/ Internet “revolution†of the 90’s, a pace that could be a pitfall to some.
Another thought
info about code officials and green building.
our local permit office is ready to offer fast track permitting to projects that submit with a filled out green calculator accompanying the permit application that shows how the project will meet green standards.
At the same time many code officials are resistant to any kind of gray water usage, rain water used to flush toilets, sealed attics, radiant floor heat installed by plumbers rather than wet heat HVAC contractors.
So they want it but are reluctant to sign off on some parts of it. Sounds like they need edumacation. Since builders are at the front line of introducing code officials to new stuff we need resources to convince them that the new stuff makes sense.
Have you seen this website? http://www.practicaleco.com/ seems like a good resource.
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"You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."
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