Green Building Curmudgeon

Much of my work these days is certifying homes under LEED, EarthCraft, Energy Star, and the National Green Building Program (NGBP). My day-to-day work includes energy modeling and site inspections, but I find that I spend most of my time explaining and interpreting the different programs to builders, telling them what to do to achieve certification. Each program has minimum requirements, all slightly different. These requirements are not always straightforward or intuitive, and most builders struggle to do them right.

The disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has generated endless news stories and opinion pieces on the state of our energy industry and how to “fix” it. Most of the conversations address two key points: independence from foreign oil and alternative energy. Strategies on the first point tend to be limited to expanding domestic drilling capacity. Regarding alternatives, suggestions range from wind and solar to nuclear, biomass, and clean coal. What I find most troubling is that there is so little discussion of conservation.

I had the pleasure of attending the 18th Congress for the New Urbanism in Atlanta this year. I have been following the development of the New Urbanism movement since its early days, having been introduced to it by my friend Peter Katz, who wrote one of the first books on the subject, The New Urbanism, almost 20 years ago.

After a daylong home tour, the NAHBNational Association of Home Builders, which awards a Model Green Home Certification. National Green Building Conference got rolling in earnest on Monday, May 17, in Raleigh, N.C. While slightly smaller than a few years ago, the conference had a respectable turnout and some good educational sessions for attendees. Kept to a concise day and a half with five sessions running concurrently, it was easy to miss some good talks—unless, of course, not only could you split your personality, but also your body.

NAHB’s National Green Building Conference in Raleigh, N.C., kicked off with a full-day tour of green homes ranging from very affordable small houses to luxury spec and custom projects. Having avoided home tours for many years, I finally took the plunge and signed up for this one. Lots of interesting things to see, particularly in the more modest projects, but boy, was it an ordeal.

Expanding on my last post about ACI, here are assorted observations and amusing anecdotes about events, products, and educational sessions that I attended. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend as many classes as I would have liked.

I recently returned from my third ACI conference in Austin. Formerly known as Affordable Comfort, this get-together is another geekfest on par with Resnet, but with a broader appeal. Until recently, ACI was a relatively small affair, appealing to the narrow and evolving home performance industry. Attendance this year was up dramatically to almost 2,000 people.

I was hired a few years ago to consult on a new luxury residence to make the house as green as possible. At about 7,500 square feet, many people would argue that it could never be a green home, but as I was brought in after the design was complete, my job was to do the best I could with what I was given to work with. While the builder, Mike LaBelle, had no prior experience in high-performance homes, luckily for everyone, he was very interested and enthusiastic about learning how to build better.

I attended Greenprints last month, a great little regional green building conference put on by Southface Energy Institute every year in Atlanta. It served its purpose well, bringing together for education and networking a wide range of industry professionals interested in sustainable building. There were three separate tracks: residential, commercial, and sustainable communities' economy and policy, along with some additional workshops and post-conference training classes.

I took the opportunity to go on an all-expenses-paid trip to tour the Marvin Windows factory recently. After spending the weekend with my buddy Michael Anschel in Minneapolis (don’t miss our upcoming presentation at ACI in Austin—North vs.