Blueprint for Green Homes
Living room walls made of recycled newsprint and carpet pads. Kitchen cabinets from glued-together chips of recycled wood. Counter tops of used carpet, bottle shards, vinyl records and computer parts. Garden walls from slices of earth, resembling a multilayer chocolate cake.
Sound like some kitschy, post-hippie nod to better living through the local dump? Not by a long shot.
“Green building,” once only the domain of the granola crowd, has gone mainstream, as architects, designers and developers have spread the word about the environmental, economic and health benefits of living green.
“When people understand the benefits of green building ... they never go back to a conventional home again,” said David Johnston, president of What’s Working, an international design and consulting firm in Boulder, Colo.
While only a handful of cities have building codes or ordinances that define green building, architects and builders agree that the structures typically use engineered or sustainable-yield lumber, energy-efficient heating and cooling units, nontoxic paints and carpets, and water-conserving designs. Fewer construction materials are used, and those that are left over are recycled.
The “greenest” homes are positioned to maximize sun exposure for natural heating and are well-ventilated to capture breezes. They use recycled products for cabinetry, decks, floors and walls, and solar technology, preferably photovoltaic cells.
Experts haven’t tallied the number of green homes nationwide, but the movement has gained momentum in the last five years, so much so that city architects from Los Angeles to New York are going green with new fire and police stations, libraries and community centers, as well as million-dollar homes and affordable-housing projects.
Among the benefits espoused by green-building proponents are energy and water conservation, healthy indoor air quality, cost savings over time and the superior construction of the buildings. Many who live in green buildings also take pride in doing their part for the environment.
Santa Monica architects David Hertz and Stacy Fong began building their own dream green house six years ago in Venice, when the trend was just picking up steam.
The married couple, parents to three children 10 years of age and younger, installed solar panels (recycled from a commercial building) to warm the four-bedroom house and generate hot water.
Their radiant heating system uses solar panels to heat water, which is delivered to storage tanks. Some of the heat then goes to a “heat exchanger”--a tank that sends warm water into plastic tubes embedded in the home’s concrete floors and walls, bathtubs and showers, even concrete furniture designed by Hertz. The warm water circulates 24 hours a day, seven days a week and utilizes only 60 watts of power, the amount of energy used by a light bulb, Hertz said.
The house also boasts automatic skylights, which open when sensors determine a temperature change indoors, letting in ocean breezes.
The seven-level, 2,700-square-foot house uses about 75% of the energy that a traditionally built house would use annually, Hertz said.
There are no carpets, drapes or decorative moldings to harbor mold, Hertz said. The concrete floors are sturdy enough for the children to ride bikes and skateboard in certain indoor areas, and can be hosed down when they get dirty.
Hertz developed the lightweight concrete, called Syndecrete, which is used throughout the house--on the floors, as counter tops and tiles for the kitchen sink and bathtubs. The product is composed almost entirely of recycled content, such as ash from electronic components, used carpet, broken bottles, scrap metal and videotape recorders, among other “obsolescents of our society,” as Hertz calls them.
“A lot of houses could be built anywhere--in any city, climate, country,” Hertz said. “Our house is built for this region, this climate, with local materials.”
Home builders, who traditionally have not embraced concepts that cost more and have an “environmentally friendly” label attached, have climbed on board the green train, with some caveats, said Tom Hoyt, chief executive officer of McStain Enterprises in Colorado.
McStain, which builds upscale homes, introduced its first green project--a townhouse complex--in 1995, using small-dimension lumber to cut down on construction waste. Today the company installs high-efficiency furnaces in its new homes, offers optional photovoltaic solar panels and builds outdoor decks from recycled plastics.
Insulation is derived from wet-spray cellulose (recycled newspaper and wood fiber materials), and the carpets are made of recycled soda bottles, which Hoyt claims are more stain-resistant and better wearing.
“Green buildings are a little more expensive at first, but you get the payback later,” Hoyt said. “They last longer and you get more back when it’s time to sell.”
Not all builders are as enthusiastic about green building, which can add 3% to 15% to a home’s price tag. The earlier in the building process that “green” elements are incorporated, the less expensive the project is, experts say. Those extra costs typically are paid back over five years for residential buildings, and up to 15 years for some commercial buildings, mainly through energy savings. Some builders still are unconvinced, however.
“In California, buyers are primarily looking for location first, desirable architecture second and a good floor plan third,” said Robb Pigg, vice president of operations at J.H. Shea. “Will they pay $10,000 extra for a home that uses new technology and products? Probably not.”
Nonetheless, many of Southern California’s biggest builders are incorporating some green strategies in their new houses. Shea Homes, for example, often uses sustainable forest products--lumber milled from small logs that are harvested from renewable forests. The company also recycles its construction waste, such as Sheetrock, lumber and cardboard.
The builder includes energy-efficient appliances, heating and air units in its homes, and in San Diego, the company has begun to install high-tech solar cells on the roofs of some of its new homes at an extra cost of about $3,000 per house.
One challenge facing builders is the lack of uniform guidelines for green building, said Mike Hodgson, energy committee chairman at the California Builders Industry Assn., a building industry trade group.
Although still not officially recognized within the industry, the new California Green Builder guidelines, created by the state’s Building Industry Institute, has established minimum criteria for residential green building: energy efficiency, air emissions, waste recycling and water conservation.
Builders who recycle 50% or more of construction waste, cut energy costs, create landscapes that use 25% less water than typical homes, among other initiatives, may market themselves as green builders, Hodgson said. Forecast Homes, Pardee Homes and Shea are among the California builders beginning to embrace these green principles, he said.
Builders aren’t the only ones going green. Los Angeles established a Sustainable Design Implementation program recently that provides guidance for green projects, said Deborah Weintraub, chief architect for the city.
Weintraub is co-writing a reference guide that will take the widely used “green” rating system for commercial structures--Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, written by the U.S. Green Building Council--and apply it to Los Angeles’ city codes and ordinances.
Meanwhile, several cities nationwide, including Los Angeles; Denver; Austin, Texas; and San Francisco, have established sets of green guidelines for residential building to aid architects and builders in meeting standards considered environmentally and energy-friendly.
Going way beyond minimal green standards, Santa Monica architects Larry Scarpa and Angela Brooks recently remodeled their Venice house as a quintessential green home. The husband-and-wife team, lifelong “greenies,” say they design all their buildings using green strategies, from their modest Westside abode to the 44-unit affordable-housing complex their firm designed for the Community Corp. of Santa Monica.
Colorado Court, in the heart of downtown Santa Monica and set for completion early next year, will utilize high-tech solar panels to produce electricity; a low-energy, natural gas-powered turbine system that will provide 100% of the building’s hot water needs; and extra insulation throughout the building. The development also will feature drought-tolerant plants, a drip-irrigation system and an underground storm-water retention system that will capture 95% of the site’s storm-water runoff.
“[The trend] is catching on,” Scarpa said, “because it’s the right thing to do, and the houses are beautiful.”
On the home front, Scarpa and Brooks’ remodeled house, which is only partially completed, incorporates solar panels that meet 100% of their power needs, recycled wood products for their cupboards and floors, walls made of recycled newsprint and carpet pads, and pink, palm-sanded acrylic skylights designed to vent the home’s heat, which is released through specially designed windows that bring in cooler outside air.
Santa Monica was among the first American cities to embrace green building. It adopted a long-term environmental plan in 1994, whose goals included storm-water retention, high-density affordable housing, and other green building initiatives, according to Susan Munves, coordinator for Santa Monica’s energy and green building programs.
In addition to the Colorado Court project, the city is building a new structure to house the Fire and Police departments, which will incorporate a number of green strategies and will be 36% more energy-efficient than California codes call for, Munves said.
Casa Verde, an affordable-housing development in Hollywood, incorporates cross-ventilation corridors and natural light, and framing made of engineered wood products, said Bill Roschen, the project’s architect. Energy-efficient heating and air systems are included in every unit, as are tiles made from recycled materials.
With the advent of programs to increase environmental awareness, the trend that five years ago was just a whisper has become the talk of the town.
“Green building has become a part of the dialogue now,” said Craig Perkins, director of environmental and public works management for Santa Monica. “It is not just an accessory; this is how building will be done from now on.”
Resources for Green Building
For more information about green building, visit these Web sites:
* U.S. Green Building Council: https://www.usgbc.org
* Global Green USA: https://www.globalgreen.org
* Sustainable Building Industry Council: https://www.sbicouncil.org
* Green Building Alliance: https://www.gbapgh.org
* U.S. Department of Energy: https://www.eren.doe.gov
* Environmental Building News: https://www.buildinggreen.com
* Rocky Mountain Institute: https://www.rmi.org
* National Assn. of Home Builders: https://www.nahb.com
