Green Building

Sunlit dining room within a green building home built by I-Renew board member Don Otto.

Building green means making the lowest overall impact on the environment. While there are many green building programs and many definitions of "green," some common threads include: consuming the smallest amount of energy to produce or transport a material; producing the smallest amounts of pollutants in the process; making our buildings durable and healthy; and building structures that, at the end of their lives, can be returned to an elemental state to renew the cycle.

Since saving energy is such a large part of environmental friendliness, understanding the building science of how energy moves into and out of our homes is key to keeping us comfortable at the lowest cost. If we use fossil fuels or electricity, using less energy keeps more CO² out of the air, and reduces the pollutants produced all along the way.

Even though molds are nature's ultimate recyclers — reducing our building materials (and us) into raw materials — understanding how to control their activity by managing moisture, helps us stay healthy and keep our homes in good condition. This benefits the environment, too, since if we double the durability of a material, we cut in half its environmental impact.

Finally, let's rethink of what becomes of our homes and contents at the end of their useful lives. Do they just pile up in a land fill or can they be converted into materials that can be used again? Instead of thinking about materials as "cradle to grave," we should think of them as "cradle to cradle" and part of a life cycle.

There's probably no completely green material, but attending learning opportunities such as the Iowa Association for Energy Efficiency (IAEE) Conference, events produced by the Center On Sustainable Communities, and the I-Renew Expo will help us all make the best choices of sustainable materials and practices.