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Green Building Principle #3
Resource Efficiency or Sustainability
Green Building
is consideration to the selection of Building
Materials that during manufacturing didn't leave
a large Ecological Footprint. Now just what the
heck does that mean? Did you know wood flooring
that comes from the jungles of some south Pacific
island where various species of animals are
being threatened to extinction due to the
clearing of their habitats? Was your wood floor
farm raised where it is quickly replanted after
harvesting? In many areas of the world, Bamboo
is considered a weed because it grows so fast
and takes over.
However, Bamboo makes an
excellent flooring material because of it's
durability. Bamboo is a good choice for the
Green Built Home. Your selected building materials should
be very durable and be able to last a very
long time. Purchasing a flooring material that
cost twice as much but last ten times longer is
a good choice. Having those Italian Imported
Granite Counter-tops certainly sounds like
something to brag about, but consider the amount
of energy it took to transport it to your
construction site. Those trucks and ships don't
run on solar power, yet. Choose materials that
are more local or home grown.
Resource Efficiency is also the intelligent use
of Engineered Lumber and Materials. According to
the NAHB a typical 2,000 sq. ft. home produces
1,600 pounds (or 6 cubic yards) of wasted solid
sawn wood alone. We need to revise how we frame
houses so not to create so much waste. Lookup
Optimal Value Engineering and learn how to frame
homes with much less waste and that means $$
saved.
Continue to Principle # 4 -
Interior
Air Quality |
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