Vernon McKown, co-owner of Ideal Homes of Norman, Okla., is a pretty enlightened green builder whom I heard speak last week at the International Builder’s Show in Orlando. The topic was how to build affordable green homes and Vern made a shocking statement: He said he’s quitting all green-building rating systems programs. That includes Energy Star…
What is the most critical, dangerous, life-threatening problem of our time? Carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. Everything else — political discord, economic downturns, loss of freedoms — can be changed fairly quickly. But once those greenhouse gases become trapped in the atmosphere, they will be there for a long, long, long time. And…
The more I study this “green” house, the more I like it. Of course, it’s more of a teardown and rebuild than a remodel, but the lot size — at 30 feet by 50 feet — presented plenty of challenges. The 2,000-square-foot, three-bedroom house, which is two blocks from the beach in Hermosa, was designed for a…
Beginning today, Nov. 8, USGBC will begin the first public comment period for the next update to the LEED rating system, with first public comment expected to run through the end of 2010. The proposed update is a general technical update to the rating system content. The proposed updates will undergo at least two public…
If you can’t sell your parent’s former home, why not turn it into a showcase for green remodeling? That’s exactly what Jay DeChesere and his wife did with a ranch style home in Wilmington, N.C. that his parents moved out of and into an assisted living facility. You could say the collapse of the housing…
Tom Kelly is president of Neil Kelly Company, a design/build firm that his father founded 60 years ago in Portland, Oregon. Neil Kelly has supported sustainable building practices long before “green building” was in vogue and has taken a strong leadership position with the construction of Tom’s home in Parkdale, Oregon. The house is the…
A two-bedroom cabin at Tamarack Lodge, overlooking Twin Lakes in the Mammoth Mountain area, has earned silver certification from the LEED green building program. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is administered by the U.S. Green Building Council. The silver rating means it adheres to a more strict green-building protocol than…