Green building will no longer be voluntary in cities across the country, after the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution backing mandatory green building codes nationwide. At its annual members meeting in Oklahoma City this month, the group of more than 1,200 mayors endorsed the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) for all new commercial buildings. The code, to be released in November, includes standards for energy, water and air quality.

In most cities across the country, green building is voluntary. By requiring new buildings to be built green, the United States could save up to $140 billion a year (largely by decreasing our use of fossil fuels). The resolution would also help cities meet the American Institute of Architects’ goal of making all new buildings carbon-neutral by 2030.

The creative process of making an ecologically responsive home explores many considerations. Green building goes light years beyond conventional construction.

• Once you’ve reflected on what you really need in a home and are clear that you must build, do not build on untouched land. Consider renovations first, additions second and then infill lots.

• Build small and build local, both material sourcing and labor. Sustainability is all about building community, in many ways.

• Build a healthy, nontoxic home that nurtures you.

• Use available renewable energy sources whenever possible—solar, wind and/or biofuels are often viable options.

• Build a highly insulated and sealed home, which keeps out unwanted temperatures.

• Create regenerative landscaping, which implements stormwater management strategies, as a beautiful garden.

• And, and this is essential, build well, so our homes will endure for centuries.

Each of these notions needs to be balanced with an open-ended design, to fluidly respond to inevitable change.

Perhaps the harshest reality of our condition, building green is not going to turn the tide of environmental destruction, and all the concomitant issues that are happening. We need to stop consuming in significant ways, which go far beyond building less and/or greener when building.

The ‘not so big house’ movement has much to offer, but it assumes we’re basically consuming the same—a 2,000 square-foot-house isn’t, in the big picture, much greener than a 6,000 square-foot-home.

So please, before you consider building ask yourself this question: Must you build at all? Many existing homes simply need to be cracked open, to breathe internally and with the land. Rather than adding a new space, why not try a bay window in an existing room? Or put a new window in a room to expand the internal flow. Or repaint an existing space. Or remove a wall or two. Or...you get the picture.

Granted, that’s all a daunting challenge. If you must build, given the above complexities, you may want to consider a team of people with varied expertise and experience, usually with an architect as the manager. But everything is a step-by-step process and we all take on only what we can during each step.

Again, there is no such thing as pure green building; we all do what is possible and feasible given the spectrum of life’s choices and circumstances. Yet, if we have an ecological awareness and a deep desire to honor all things—even if we have to make compromises because of issues such as finances—we will build more viable and enlivening homes.

At a recent green building conference, the moderator of a breakout session asked what steps we can take to “build greener.” “Install solar panels.” “Superinsulate.” “Build with local materials.”

Appreciating those as important considerations, and with some trepidation, I raised my hand and said, “Don’t build.”

Granted, it seems odd for an architect who makes his living from building to recommend not building. But I went on to say that perhaps 80 percent of the projects we’ve done during the last 20 years didn’t “need” to happen. I told the gathering that when I meet with clients who want to build an addition on their home these days, I often end up talking them out of building an addition at all.

Instead, I encourage them to reconsider how they live in the space they already have.

The first act of building green is to live greener—sustainably and with an ecological awareness. To consider how we most innately live, think back to the way we lived as young children—everything appeared to us to be alive, asking to be engaged with, whether it had a heart or was found under a rock (or both!). The central act of living, that children naturally understand, is to deeply value all things and to seek to be a part of their wondrous, mysterious ways of being. This is “living” as an integral part of our local ecosystem. And it is at the heart of living green

Another central aspect of living green is to recognize life is a paradox and that there are always issues from both sides—the yin and yang of life—that need consideration. Balance is essential and we all make choices. This leads to a harsh reality—there is no
absolute “green” building, only shades of green.

We cannot build 100 percent green for a variety of reasons, which hinge on this—there are many aspects of green that need to be considered. Most simply, there is responsible material sourcing; using as little energy as possible, or even generating energy; building a healthy, nontoxic home that respects all hands involved in the building, including those at far-away factories and fields. These criteria are augmented by the mantras of “build small” and “build locally,” with both material sourcing and labor. It takes great diligence and careful analysis to meet all these criteria with every one of the hundreds of choices.

Carol Venolia wrote one of the first books that linked environmentally sound homes with good health more than a decade ago, and she's been preaching the gospel of building homes in sync with nature for longer than that. She knows her stuff, and she's not afraid to think in new directions. I first heard Carol speak at the Real Goods Solar Center's Solfest festival in 2000; I've since found every opportunity I could to hear what she has to say. Carol, who has written Natural Home’s "Design for Life" column since 2001, recently co-authored Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House, a bible for anyone planning a good green remodel.

Learn how to naturally remodel your home with Carol Venolia's "Luscious Living" workshops in Austin, Texas. Photo By Barbara Bourne.

Austinites, this week you have a great opportunity to hear what Carol has to say about green remodeling and living with the earth’s cycles during her "Luscious Living" workshops, a special guest series sponsored by Design-Build-Live. The workshops will be held at various locations around Austin, including the Texas State Teachers Association at 12th and Lavaca on Thursday, Advanced Micro Devices on Southwest Parkway on Saturday, and a south Austin residence on Sunday.

"Natural Remodeling" (June 17, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.) focuses on creating a healthier, more efficient home that more deeply connects you with the living world.

"Life-Centered Design" (June 19, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) explores our need to  connect with natural cycles and what sensory input we need to thrive.

"Natural Remodeling" (June 19, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.) teaches participants how to evaluate an existing house and site for its gifts and challenges in relation to sun, wind, water, landscape and neighborhood, then set priorities and strategies for their natural remodeling projects.

For more information or to register, visit Design-Build-Live.

Like many people who build a home, we started with a budget that included a margin for predictable uncalculated overruns. As our project nears completion, we know we have exceeded that margin for error. Hopefully you can learn from our three overruns and do better at staying within your budget when building your green dream home.

1. Reclaimed wood has cost us a little more. 

Reclaimed barn oak cabinetry add warmth to the kitchen. Photo By Rebecca Selove.

We knew the reclaimed barn oak we’re using for our kitchen cabinets would cost more than wood from the lumber yard because there are extra steps involved in taking apart barns and sorting wood to take out that which is too damaged for reuse. Our conscientious cabinetmaker told us the wood, which he bought directly from the harvester, had to be dehydrated. He constructed a storage tent, where he stacked the wood with a dehumidifier. He also bought a meter for measuring the water in the wood, and waited almost three weeks to start construction of the cabinets until the wood was below 10 percent humidity. He graciously passed on only a portion of the extra cost to us, which we decided we could cover before we signed our contract with him and before we had many other unexpected expenses. 

2. Poplar paneling has cost us three times as much.

A skilled carpenter installed this poplar paneling. Photo By Rebecca Selove.

We expected to pay a bit more for poplar paneling (instead of drywall) reclaimed from a home that was going to be demolished, and we bought the wood before consulting with our builder about additional costs for having it installed. Nailing standard sizes of drywall to the frame takes about one-third the time as cutting and fitting poplar panels on the frame. We are happy to have reclaimed wood and think it looks wonderful, but hadn’t expected the cost of installation to be three times the cost of installing drywall. Sometimes decisions made quickly can snag a bargain, but this one involved making a decision without knowing all the costs. 

3. Energy-efficient windows take extra planning. 

Opening these windows is a big deal in function and a small deal on a blueprint. Photo By Rebecca Selove.

Our third over-run involved our energy-efficient windows, which are a significant cost and an important investment for us. We reduced our budget by changing the original design so that all windows in the house are standard sizes. Originally our bedroom was designed with a large fixed (non-opening) window beside a porch door that has a screen in it. We changed that window to a smaller one that would open (we thought). This wasn’t recorded on the blueprint, and when the window was installed we saw a non-opening window beside our bed. We decided to buy another window to replace it, and we hope to recoup 50 percent of the cost of the new one if the window manufacturer can sell the fixed one at a discount to someone else. Our mistake could be your bargain at the nearby window boneyard!

We recommend that you ask about additional expenses associated with using bargains that pop up. Also, go over your plans carefully to make sure what you want is in writing. 

Today the International Code Council (ICC) released the International Green Construction Code (IGCC), the first-ever international green building codes and standards. Standard 189.1, or Standard for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, establishes technical requirements for green building that include energy efficiency, site sustainability, water use efficiency, indoor environmental quality, materials and resources.

Standard 189.1 is a step in the right direction for green building. By creating much-needed standards for the green building industry, the IGCC has established a set of regulations that can be easily adopted and enforced. The standards go beyond those set by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program and provide design guidance for building designers and engineers.

The IGCC represents the combined efforts of four groups: the International Code Council; the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers; the U.S. Green Building Council; and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. Written by experts representing all aspects of the green building industry, the code was developed in a little more than three years, underwent four public reviews and received more than 2,500 comments before it was finalized.

It’s self-serving to suggest that the topics we’ve been covering in Natural Home for a decade will emerge as important green building trends in 2010. But all the experts agree: This is the year when everyone will want a green, energy-efficient home. Insulation is sexy. President Obama said so.

Here’s the green building trends we think will happen in 2010.

Green Building Trend 1: Modular will be the new straw bale. 

The i-house includes ample natural light and outdoor living spaces. Photo Courtesy Clayton Homes.

At the turn of the century, straw bale was a popular dream-house material. (People purchased a lot of books and magazines about straw bale homes and built a decent number of straw bale homes.) Now, prefab homes are the rage—and unlike straw bale, they’re pretty easy to build. Prefab home manufacturers have popped up across the country, and they’re building affordable, stylish, environmentally friendly homes. Clayton Homes’ iHouse, backed by billionaire investor Warren Buffet, provides 723 hip-looking square feet, complete with solar panels, tankless water heaters and bamboo floors. Start dreaming.

Green Building Trend 2: Green remodeling will hang tough in a tough economy.

This year homeowners will capitalize on 2009’s buzz about energy efficiency. Green remodels will be good business in 2010 as the Obama Administration continues to promote energy efficiency and clean energy. Now, more than ever, it pays for taxpayers to improve their homes’ energy efficiency. Market research firm SBI predicts the U.S. home energy renovation market will grow about 15 percent per year until it reaches $35 billion in 2013. Energy-efficient remodeling and renovating is a bright spot in the still-struggling construction business, SBI says.

Green Building Trend 3: We’ll see a lot more “green” building products, and we’ll need to ask more questions.

NextGen Research predicts that the global market for green building materials will grow 5 percent per year until it reaches $571 billion in 2013. That growth will trigger innovations in green building technology—and some who just want to get in on the gold rush. On the upside, green products will look and perform better, and designers’ creativity won’t be limited by finite resources. But buyer beware: It pays to investigate a company’s green claims before investing. Third-party certification will also take on more importance in the coming year.

What do you think? Are we overly optimistic? Right on track? Or just predictable? Leave me a comment in the comment section.

Want to read more 2010 predictions? Check out our lifestyle predictions, interior design predictions and our energy-efficient homes predictions.

Last April I wrote about innovations in hemp as a building material. At the time of that blog post, researchers were developing ways to use hemp as a building block for zero-carbon homes. Because cultivating hemp is illegal in the U.S., all of that research was conducted overseas. 

Nauhaus Building Systems’ workers mix the Hemcrete. Photo Courtesy Nauhaus.

Hemp production hasn’t been legalized since then, but hemp has moved into the U.S. building industry. Two homes in Asheville, North Carolina, are being built using a hemp material called Tradical Hemcrete. The product, sold by Asheville-based Hemp Technologies, mixes four parts ground-up hemp stalks with one part water and one part lime to create durable, resilient walls that European researchers have found can last up to 700 or 800 years. 

In addition to durability, hemp concrete walls provide many benefits. They’re resistant to mold, mildew, fire and insects, and the lime absorbs carbon, making the walls carbon-negative. 

Check out a close-up of a Hemcrete wall with an electrical box. Photo Courtesy Nauhaus.

Because the materials have to be imported, hemp concrete is more expensive than traditional building materials. Despite this, it’s possible to save money in other aspects of building when using hemp. Hemp construction uses less lumber for framing, and because it’s all-purpose, hemp concrete can be your sheetrock, insulation and moisture barrier all in one. Hemp concrete walls are also energy-efficient, saving homeowners on their energy bills each month. 

We think this is a promising material, and we’d like to see more of it. What do you think?

Looking to spend less heating your home this winter? You’re not alone. Now the Environmental Protection Agency’s new Green Homes website can help. Whether you rent or own your home, Green Homes offers tips on reducing energy consumption, waste generation and water usage while improving  indoor air quality.

Log on to the EPA's Green Homes website for tips on reducing energy consumption, waste generation and water use. NH Archives.

At Green Homes you’ll find solutions for any room in the house as well as information on building new green homes and finding an energy-efficient mortgage, which takes into account the savings derived from energy-efficient homes to help you qualify for better terms. The website also offers advice for renters, a section of the population that has long been thought to have little control over their homes’ environmental impacts. The Renter’s Checklist covers issues including what to look for when considering an apartment to greening the space after moving in.

We use energy for almost everything we do in our home. More than 128 million housing units in the United States account for nearly 54 percent of national energy use and 31 percent of all U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. By providing people with information on residential environmental issues, the EPA hopes to empower the public to reduce global climate change, one  home at a time.

Saving energy can be as simple as installing a programmable thermostat, or as thorough as performing a home energy audit.

Thinking of building green? Now’s the time. New green building opportunities are coming together in Washington. 

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 contains several provisions to reward green builders and accelerate green building. The bill encourages consumers to build green homes or remodel their homes to improve energy efficiency through the Green Resources for Energy Efficient Neighborhoods (GREEN) Act. The act encourages the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) to insure at least 50,000 energy-efficient and location-efficient mortgages by December 31, 2012. It also requires federal banking regulators to establish “green banking centers,” which will help customers looking for information about acquiring green mortgages. 

The government is taking steps to promote green building. Photo By EDubya/Courtesy Flickr.

The bill also authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) WaterSense program to reduce water use and conserve energy by designating products as water efficient. Through Watersense, the bill also provides funding for a program that will reward consumers who use residential water-efficient products, with rebates.

To more easily evaluate residential and commercial buildings’ energy performance, the bill also established The Building Energy Performance Labeling Program, which will direct the EPA in creating consistent energy performance standards for new construction.

The bill also extends the federal government’s purchasing power, allowing it to purchase renewable power for up to 20 years.

The bill still needs Senate approval. If it becomes law, it would completely alter the way the United States approaches energy use. Energy would cost more because it would be more expensive to produce, more fuel-efficient cars would dot the roads and natural gas would be used more than coal.

Buildings account for 40 percent of U.S energy consumption, 39 percent of carbon dioxide emissions and 13 percent of water consumption. We at Natural Home already know the importance of green building; we’re glad to see the government taking steps to promote it.

What do you think about the new energy and climate legislation? Tell me about it in the comments section.

At Natural Home, we saw this one coming. 

Americans want smaller, more affordable homes, according to a 2008 survey by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).  In fact, 60 percent of American said they prefer smaller houses with more amenities to houses with more square footage. 

Since the 1950s, housing in America has reflected the idea that bigger is better. The average home has grown from 1,600 square feet in the 1970s to more than 2,500 square feet today. Happiness hasn’t grown along with house size, however, and more Americans are looking to downsize, saving money on materials and energy. 

Jay Shafer's Tumbleweed Tiny Houses are moving masterpieces. NH Archives.

Designers and builders are also responding to the new trend. According to  American Institute of Architects (AIA) surveys of 500 residential architectural firms found that home sizes are declining. 

Some designers are even basing companies on small homes. Jay Shafer’s Tumbleweed Tiny House Company builds houses (or lets you build them yourself) that range from 65 to 140 square feet. Brad Kittel’s Tiny Texas Houses builds 12 foot by 20 foot houses almost entirely out of salvaged materials. 

Do you live in a small home? We hope you’ll share your story in the comment section.

Last weekend—the second anniversary of the tornado that destroyed the small town of Greensburg, Kansas—residents invited the public to see its progress toward becoming one of the first green towns in the United States. Greensburg homeowners and business owners have rebuilt much of the town with eco-friendly construction materials. 

In the devastating tornado’s aftermath, Greensburg city officials committed to using 100 percent renewable energy from a wind farm a few miles south and mandated that every city building be built to the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED Platinum standards. 

The Silo eco-home will be a model for smallscale sustainable food production. The roof will be transformed into usable space through the creation of an herb and vegetable garden. Photo Courtesy Greensburg GreenTown. 

GreenTown is a community-owned organization that partnered with city officials to rebuild the town in a sustainable manner. With assistance from the USGBC and Ogden Publications, parent company of Natural Home, Mother Earth News, The Herb Companion and Utne Reader magazines, GreenTown has planned several buildings slated to qualify for LEED Platinum status, including the John Deere dealership, which opened for business in January; Sun Chips Business Incubator building, completed this May; and the Kiowa County Memorial Hospital, which will be complete in fall 2010. In addition to these buildings, the 5.4.7 Arts, a fine arts community center, achieved LEED Platinum level in 2008. 

In addition, GreenTown’s Chain of Eco-Homes project offers 12 model homes that act as “living laboratories.” Constructed of eco-friendly building materials, each home is scientifically monitored to determine how the materials perform. The homes are open to the public as lodging and as an information center. GreenTown broke ground last December and completed two homes on May 4, 2009. It hopes to complete two more homes by the end of 2009 and the remaining eight by the end of 2011.

It’s zero degrees here in Boulder today. But the sun is brilliant, and the foothills are majestic, all covered in snow. I’m dealing with an Inauguration Week hangover, vacillating between hope about our country’s fresh start and despair over rotten economic news that just keeps on coming. 

I really want to take Carol Venolia’s advice, from her “Design for Life” column in the current issue, and spend the rest of the winter in hibernation. But that’s impossible, so I’m looking on the bright side. And the good news is, there’s plenty of good news out there right now. My email inbox has been full of it. 

1. President Obama’s stimulus plan includes tens of billions of dollars to green up our electricity, putting 460,000 Americans to work on energy projects and doubling the amount of alternative energy produced over the next three years. The plan includes funds to "weatherize" 2 million homes by improving insulation and leaky windows. Needless to say, we love this idea!

2. We’re trading in our status as a hyper-consumer culture and becoming a yard sale nation. James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency, about the challenges posed by the coming permanent global oil crisis, climate change and other "converging catastrophes of the 21st century," wrote last week on Alternet: “Say goodbye to the ‘consumer society.’ We're done with that. No more fast money and no more credit. The next stop is ‘yard-sale nation,’ in which all the plastic crapola accumulated over the past fifty years is sorted out for residual value and, if still working, sold for a fraction of its original sticker price. This includes everything from Humvees to Hello Kitty charm bracelets.” As advocates of reuse and salvage, we’re smiling about this one.

3. Homebuyers want green homes. At the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas last week, the National Association of Home Builders revealed survey results showing that 92 percent of respondents would rather have an energy-efficient home with lower utility bills versus a cheaper home without them. And homeowners said they would spend an average of $6,000 more on a home that would save them $1,000 annually on energy costs. Hey, we’re down with that.

4. Homebuyers want smaller homes. In the July-September quarter of 2008, the average size of a house under construction fell 7.3 percent, to 2,438 square feet from 2,629 square feet in the previous quarter, according to the NAHB. Ninety percent of builders told the NAHB that they’re building smaller homes.

5. “Many think 2009 will go down as the year green goes mainstream and homebuyers become much more savvy about the need for eco-friendly options,” columnist Michele Lerner wrote earlier this month in the Residential Real Estate Examiner.

2009 looks to be our year. And that ought to keep us all warm for a while.

This first week back after the holidays is always a little rough for me. 

It’s our final production week; we’re sending the March/April gardening issue off to the printer. It’s nice, if bizarre, to be looking at layouts full of lush, bountiful gardens on a bleak January day. That’s one of the old-school things I love about printed magazines, that need to work almost half a year ahead of the calendar in order to make up for the long, cumbersome mechanical printing process. It seems so quaint, in this age of Twitter. 

Next up is our tenth-anniversary issue. Gearing up for that one’s been making me feel nostalgic (and old). Ten’s a lot of years. I was such an innocent kid back in 1999, when I called up Pliny Fisk at the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems in Austin and made him laugh out loud with how little I knew about green building. (I confused Lake Flato], a green architecture firm, with Lake Travis, a real lake west of Austin.) A couple more trips to Austin (and other green hot spots), and I knew a little more than I knew before—but, lucky for me, that was more than most. Green building was still pretty grass roots, an open network of information exchange, in 1999.  

I think we made some mighty fine magazines back in those days. We featured a lot of funky, one-of-a-kind natural houses (the kind I’m particularly partial to), but we erred in not offering enough for regular folks (like me) who may not ever build that way. We adjusted our formula, readjusted again a few years later, and readjusted again. (That’s another beautiful thing about magazines…we get to do that. And now that we have tools such as online surveys, we’re constantly microadjusting, which is pretty cool.) 

Back in 1999, I’d get some quizzical (even suspicious) looks from people when I told them about Natural Home. (I didn’t really look like a hippie. I was a suburban mother of two.) Those have died out these days, as most everyone has at least a toe in the green thing (even if it’s just a pair of bamboo socks). 

But as we stand here at the brink of 2009, I’m not completely convinced that green has hit “mainstream” status. The U.S. Green Building Council reports that only 2 to 10 percent of American homes could be considered green.  We have a ways to go, but our cache is only building. It’s cool to be hitting this 10-year milestone just as our incoming president dangles forth possibility in the use of words like “renewable energy” and “green jobs.” 

We’ve posted some of the houses we most love from the past decade at www.naturalhomemagazine.com/tenth-anniversary. Soon, we'll have a survey ready for you, and we hope you’ll stop by to vote for your favorites (or write them in, if you don’t find them there).  I believe these homes, which have paved the way for the exciting decade to come, will continue to provide inspiration and fodder for our housing dreams—well into this next millennium.