The most recent blogs at Green Building Advisor

How many of you have searched the Web to calculate your carbon footprint? I have, and it is exciting, intimidating, and perhaps an all-consuming process. More than 10 years ago my husband and I signed on with Xcel Energy support wind power. We installed a programmable thermostat and set the temperature higher in the summer and lower in the winter.

Are green builders more fearful than most Americans? It would certainly appear so, since so many of them show signs of an almost paranoid obsession with toxins.

Occasionally I wonder if I have some sort of masochistic streak — somehow enjoying the grief I get when bursting people’s favorite bubbles. I’ll brace myself for such a response to this column, when I point out why radiant-floor heating systems don’t make sense for new, energy-efficient houses.

Kitchens of the past were often dark, cramped places where a solitary cook would toil. Now that it has evolved into the social hub of the house, people usually want the kitchen to be open to living areas. They also want windows to bring in natural light and ventilation. Meanwhile multiple cooks, helpers, and visitors need their own places in the kitchen, and a multitude of small appliances are considered essential, straining the traditional work triangle.

Okay, so you’ve put your stellar team together, and everyone’s agreed about how the integrated design process is going to unfold. It may be new to them, but they’re game. Now you’re going to hold a charrette to kick off the process. What happens there?

First of all, what’s a "charrette" anyway?

Small Giants was written by Bo Burlingham, who also co-authored The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Game with Jack Stack. His point is that, while it’s easy to feel beleaguered as a small-business owner — competing against bigger companies with deeper capital reserves and expert boards of directors and investors — the business is better able to follow the leader's intuition and to harvest information more quickly and act on it with less need for justification.

It’s complex and hard to read… That’s why they call it a Code!

If you’re going to build green or otherwise, you'll need to crack the code. The process begins with a permit and you'll pass a series of inspections. Here’s a primer of the code, but it's worth getting a copy to read as well.

There is a lot of discussion about pervious paving and its contribution to the environment. Standard paving materials collect pollutants like oil, chemicals, and rubber tire particles from vehicles, pesticides, and dirt, only to have rain wash it off into our waterways, degrading our fresh water supply. Natural landscapes allow rain to percolate down through the soil, taking various pollutants with it, filtering and cleaning them as they flow down, typically arriving clean and clear by the time they reach the water table.

The words may be the same, but our understanding is poles apart…

Imagine you’re in another country where no one speaks English, and you just want to find your way to the hotel. How do you communicate? Carefully, right? You’ll have a similar problem if you are a first-time homebuilder communicating with a building inspector...especially about green products or materials.

Communication is key

Following up on my comments on green product verification – One More Thing to Worry About– I recently learned about ICC ES-SAVE (Sustainable Attributes Verification and Evaluation), yet another program to verify the sustainability of products.