How to Build Green
Environment-conscious Design and Construction
Kermit the frog was right: It’s not easy being green.
The word is in such common use that it’s easy to assume that everybody knows what it is to be green, and so it should follow that it’s easy to do. Neither of those assumptions is true.
Being green, which to me means making the effort to protect the health of the earth in everything we do, requires care. You can find a statement of the philosophy behind my design work under “Green Architecture” on our website, aginsburgarchitects.com. But here I want to be practical and talk about some of the ways we at A. Ginsburg Architects apply that philosophy in building homes, designing commercial projects, and doing renovations.
And if you’re starting to think about how to build green, I’ve created a checklist at (Build Green Check-list) that anyone can use to start thinking about specific things they can do in their own building project to help protect our environment.
We said it takes care to be green; that begins with design. With a new home, that starts with where and how it’s placed on the site. We can take advantage of terrain to protect the building from weather, and place it to maximize the effects of the sun so it requires less heating in cold weather; nicely proportioned overhangs and other features can combine with siting to provide natural cooling when it’s warm outside.
Good design can produce something we call the Kermit Effect. It makes living responsibly convenient, even fun. We like features that make it simple to recycle containers and trash, compost organic waste for use in the garden, hang clothes to dry in the sun, keep wine and produce in a cool place that doesn’t require refrigeration, store bikes in minimal space. We like these features even better if they have a little design twist or a look that makes them inviting and fun to use. We’re always looking for the Kermit Effect.
If there is one essential element of design that’s overlooked more than any other, it’s light. That’s a big mistake. We all know that good lighting is a requisite for most of our activities – things like reading, preparing dinner, pouring the food into the dog’s dish, hammering a nail, doing our nails, just walking upstairs. But we often overlook how important light is to how we feel. Science shows that light affects our moods, our feelings, our outlook on life.
Artificial light uses a lot of energy. Good lighting design begins with where a house is built on its lot and which way it faces. It uses things like clerestory windows, light tubes, and window design and placement to take maximum advantage of natural light. The sun can provide power for outdoor lighting along sidewalks, driveways, patios, and decks. Where electric lighting is needed, dimmers, timers, motion sensors, new-generation fluorescents, and LEDs (that’s light-emitting diodes, the kind of element used in computer screens) offer attractive low-energy options.
Creative design romances the sun and its sister, the wind, to smooth out the effects of climate on our comfort.
Anybody who’s spent too long at the beach without heavy-duty sunscreen knows the sun’s potential to heat things up. With good design and choices and arrangements of materials, it takes little or no equipment, and no energy, to capture that heat and use it in a house to warm space and water. Things as ordinary as curtains and drapes, designed and used right, can keep the sun outside when it’s not wanted, and a carefully angled roofline welcomes the sun in the winter and turns it away in the summer. The same kinds of tricks can channel the wind for cooling and fend it off to shield cozy, heated areas in the cold times. And of course solar panels can supply a significant part of a house’s energy.
Of course, nature can’t do all the work by itself, so in northern New England we’ll always want to provide help with mechanical systems for heating, often for cooling, and for warming up the water for a bath or washing dishes. Ingenious geothermal systems take advantage of the steady temperature underground to reduce the use of energy from the grid and the tank almost to zero. But careful design and smart selection of ordinary systems can minimize energy use, too, cut waste to zero, and still provide the blissful comfort in all seasons that we count on. There are a lot of fine systems available now (and some not-so-good ones, too); smart choices can pay off in a big way. And of course the same goes for appliances: washer, dryer (when the sun and wind aren’t cooperating), dishwasher, refrigerator, even the TV (you’d be amazed at the difference in energy use between brands and types of big, flat-screen models). Even electrical fixtures can be chosen to reduce energy use.
Little things count, too: it’s easy to take water for granted, to forget that it’s a finite resource and watching out for the environment calls on us to use it carefully. Low-flow bathroom fixtures, gardens designed to use water efficiently, drainage systems that re-cycle water, all these can reduce use of municipal water or reduce strain on wells and pumps.
These are all things we consider in the process of designing a building, thinking about the way it protects us, keeps us comfortable, and allows us to enjoy life. But green design begins even before this stage, in thinking about the kinds of materials we use to build, where they come from, how they’re made, and even the people who create a house where there was nature’s land before.
The first principal here is simple: local is better. Local means people and materials don’t have to go long distances and use a lot of energy to play their part. Start with the people. In this, Vermont is blessed. I don’t have the numbers to prove it, but I’d bet that per capita our state has more highly skilled and hard-working builders, trades-people, carpenters, craftsmen, and construction folks of all kinds, than any other place in the world. I say that because I’ve worked with a lot of them, both side by side hammering nails and guiding them in bringing my designs to life. And I also know who has the skill and commitment to do beautiful work that’s not only efficient but also minimizes waste.
With experience moving, preparing, and building with all kinds of materials on job sites, I can focus on design methods and choices of materials that also reduce waste. It starts with the latest computerized design and planning software; careful estimating minimizes leftover material that goes to the dump when the job is finished. And here, going local is a big factor, too. Nearby vendors providing local materials as much as possible are another major element in environmental consciousness. We save energy in harvesting and creating materials, transporting them to the supplier, and getting them to the job site. In recent years, we’ve learned that some manufactured materials, like plywood, composite board, and decking, give off harmful gas into the environment; of course we choose carefully.
Now, I have to interrupt this discussion with a personal note. You might not guess this from my name, but I’m a third-generation Yankee, fourth if you count my immigrant great-grandfather, who came across the ocean to settle in Worcester, Mass. And just like the Yankees who got here long before we did and created the great traditions of our region, I take pride in being frugal. (Really, if you think about it, Yankee frugality, with its aversion to waste, was a first building block in the green consciousness.) So along with my commitment to protect our environment, I always keep in mind my clients’ interest in efficiency, value, and cost. I never make a decision, even about invisible matters, without consulting my clients. In the end, as with every other aspect of design and construction, only the client can make the final decision on the balance between environmental considerations and other factors.
There’s one other important part of thinking green, and it’s a big one: renovation. Whether it’s putting on an addition, adding a deck, or pushing out a wall to add a bedroom and a playroom, renovation is always gentle on the environment compared to starting from scratch. It’s the ultimate act of re-cycling. We love looking for solutions that make a house new and at the same time look like it’s exactly where it belongs.
This whole inventory of factors adds up to an attitude, an approach. Not all of them will work on every building, but if we keep all the possibilities in mind every time we start a project, we’ll be taking care of our environment and ultimately, ourselves. And that’s thinking green. I believe Kermit would approve.