Building Green — Sustainable structures can save on utility, maintenance costs
Kate Lohnes
Monitor Staff Writer
The Monitor — McAllen Texas
June 03, 2006
Kermit the Frog got it all wrong: it is easy to be green.While Kermit meant his froggy complexion, today “green” encompasses a variety of eco-friendly materials and products. Current products on the market are green clothing, green cleaning products and green furniture, which use sustainable, non-toxic materials to make them easy on the environment. Green building and construction (also called sustainable building) is growing in popularity and availability within the general public.
A “green building” is a structure made or modified to have the smallest possible impact on the environment. Using recycled materials in a building’s design is only part of what “building green” means, said Taryn Holowka, communications manager for the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). To have a green building, architects and contractors should look at site selection, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources used and indoor environmental quality, and then determine what choices will have the smallest effect on the environment. The more green choices a builder makes, Holowka said, the more he is saving both the environment and the building owner’s wallet. Using energy-conservative fixtures in a building, for example, means a reduction in energy costs. The lower the energy bill, the less the company will exert itself to supply needed energy, adding less pollution to the atmosphere.
“(Green building) is most relevant to everyone because they save on heat and electricity costs,” Holowka said. “Utility costs are so high, and this can help. The change will help save building owner’s money.”
The time has come for the construction industry to take building green seriously, said David Lake, whose San Antonio-based firm Lake/Flato created the most recognized green building in the Rio Grande Valley, the World Birding Center location at the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park in Mission. The center uses local materials, like cypress wood and locally-manufactured brick, and constructed a roof that uses 60 percent less steel than other large buildings. The building also uses cisterns to collect rainwater when it falls, which is used on the surrounding natural vegetation. According to Lake, all of the buildings his firm designs are sustainable structures, and more people in the construction business should do the same.
“Building owners and builders need to embrace the attitude that the construction industry is responsible for an enormous load of the energy use in the United States and the world,” he said. “If we’re serious about global warming and climate change, we have a real role to play. We must address the burgeoning need for future buildings in making them energy efficient.”
To help architects and contractors achieve green buildings, the USGBC launched a program in 2000 called Leading Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a voluntary program for certifying buildings as green. Buildings that meet these guidelines are considered sustainable, or buildings with reusable, pro-environment qualities. Currently, Holowka said more than 500 buildings across the country have been LEED certified while there are 3,800 waiting for approval, a pace she said the organization is pleased with.
“It’s actually going faster than we anticipated,” Holowka said. “(Building and construction) is a huge industry that is slow to change, but it really is changing. It’s a whole new way of thinking, but it is a really simple design strategy. It’s not such a huge thing, people shouldn’t be afraid of it.”
Meeting LEED standards or creating a green building doesn’t have to be difficult, said Peter L. Pfeiffer, whose Austin-based architectural firm Barley/Pfeiffer creates commercial and residential buildings that are exclusively green.
“I just call it good, sound building,” he said. “It’s high-performance building as opposed to building shoddily.”
According to Pfeiffer, considerations for green design must begin long before the building is built.
“You’ve got to start out with a design, with a home or a building that responds to climate,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to worry about insulation in Texas. It makes more sense to think about how to shade windows from the hot sun.”
Initial presumptions about a project have the most impact on how green it will be, Pfeiffer said. If a house faces east or west, for example, that home will have higher energy costs than one facing north or south, because direct sunlight will penetrate windows. Choosing a design with the master bedroom on the second floor can also cut a home’s energy bills by a third and conserve energy, because you only heat or cool half of the house at night. These are simple solutions that will add little to a building’s overall cost, but will save money and energy for the building’s owners down the road, he said.
“There are a lot of misconceptions out there that (green building) is expensive,” he said. “It’s not. If people don’t understand it, they’re going to think of expensive things like solar collectors and so many other things. Builders and architects lack knowledge. They think they’ll save a lot of energy with extra thick insulation when on the other hand you could shade windows with a good roof overhangs for windows. They don’t understand where to put clients’ money.”
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Kate Lohnes covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4427.
© 2006 The Monitor and Freedom Interactive Newspapers of Texas, Inc. Posted by: Paul on June 19, 2006 at 20:18:28