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Debunking myths about going green

An example of effective green building is Carnival Super Market in Dallas. It uses an automated, smart lighting system that senses the amount of daylight coming through skylights and adjusts interior lighting accordingly. (BUSINESS WIRE / The Spokesman-Review)
Joel White Spokane Home Builders Association
An example of effective green building is Carnival Super Market in Dallas. It uses an automated, smart lighting system that senses the amount of daylight coming through skylights and adjusts interior lighting accordingly. (BUSINESS WIRE / The Spokesman-Review)

Is it hard to build green? Is it a lot more expensive? Do you have to live in a yurt or some other strange building to say you’re a green home owner? No, no, and most decidedly no!

The Spokane Home Builders Association (SHBA) and its program partners will be launching the Inland Northwest Built Green® program at the Premier Home Improvement Show April 18-20 at the Spokane Fair and Expo Center. Designed to help bring residential green building into the mainstream, Built Green® also demystifies the process and debunks the myths of green building for consumers – and for home builders.

Built Green® includes an easy-to-follow checklist and handbook to help the builder and buyer understand the potential green features in today’s marketplace, as well as a detailed resource guide when more information is desired. That makes it easier than ever to build and live green.

Is it more expensive to build green? Experienced builders say it doesn’t have to be. Checklist-based programs award points for resource efficiency, and if you’re using fewer materials, you’re saving money, they point out. And some green building ideas – like positioning a home’s windows to best take advantage of natural light – don’t cost any more than conventional building and save money for the homeowner through increased energy efficiency.

Nor does green building consist of neighborhoods filled with yurts, underground bunkers or geodesic domes. When a house is green but looks like other houses in the neighborhood – and can be replicated by any willing builder – then we know green is mainstream.We’re seeing that happen right now.

There are more green building products than ever. Easier to use insulation, chemically neutral paints, sustainable flooring and natural landscaping products are no longer difficult to find. Most home-improvement stores carry a full line of compact fluorescent bulbs, which use 70 percent less energy, and advances in solar roof panels and shingles, wind turbines, and efficient appliances make green technology less expensive than even a few years ago.

But there are scattered gray clouds on a mostly green horizon. Efforts to mandate green building are the perfect example of good intentions gone awry.

Green building needs to stay voluntary to continue to allow for market innovation and to make sure that any additional money spent to build “green” goes to building improvements, not excessive certification fees and endless paperwork.

Built Green® discourages efforts to dictate and legislate what constitutes acceptable green building practices because the building science in this area is still evolving and innovation must be fostered rather than regulated and controlled. We don’t want to see this dynamic process frozen in place.

See Built Green® at Premier Home Improvement Show – April 18-20

Homebuyers don’t have to wait that long to learn more about being green. Plan to attend the Premier Home Improvement Show this Friday through Sunday (April 18-20) at the Spokane Fair and Expo Center, or visit www.CertifiedBuiltGreen.org.