This wonderful article talks to how we can rethink our buildings and the way we thrive in them. Can your home be a Green castle that not only improves your health, but also gives back to the environment? Here are a couple of excerpts and the link.

In-joy,

Bruce

Structures so green they give back to the environment
By Lisa Selin Davis, Plenty Magazine

Forget simply cutting a building’s footprint. A new wave or architectural thinkers wants to create buildings that help regenerate the planet like living organisms.

“The building sector is really the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the country and the world,” says Edward Mazria, founder of Architecture 2030, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions produced by new construction. Today, buildings consume up to 76 percent of the United States’ total electricity and emit 43 percent of our greenhouse gases. And the same mistakes are repeated in the 5 billion square feet of built space created nationwide every year.

Illustration credit to June Key Delta house

But now, the next phase in the history of green building is underway. A band of visionary architects, designers, engineers, and builders have recognized how far we’ve strayed from the principles that informed our earliest architecture. They’re harnessing both advanced and ancient technologies to dream up structures that make even the current standard of responsible building—the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system—pale in comparison. While LEED certification measures and rewards a reduction in energy use, for instance, the architects behind the next-generation, beyond-LEED structures, called “carbon neutral” or “regenerative,” are aiming for designs that use no energy at all—to be energy positive or net-zero. The green building of the future doesn’t just do less harm to the environment; it improves it. It won’t just use less water; it will collect and treat it. It won’t just force air; it will filter it. And it won’t just save energy; it will create it. Buildings are not only about to breathe like people—they’ll also give back like good Samaritans.

Full Article

There are many ways to think of how to funnel the impressive power of a group of individuals and the larger community. One way is by setting an example for the renewable energy wave of change that is under foot.

Sometimes it is difficult to be the first one in your neighborhood to make the move to renewable energy. Most all of the time it is well worth the effort and has benefits that go far beyond your expectations!

Below is a wonderful video by Good Energy Films in England. This north London church brings solar energy to the community providing green electricity and raising awareness for renewable energy.

Suprisingly, buildings produce the biggest share of green house emmissions. More than transportation or industry. The good news… is that no other sector offers a simpler or cheaper way to cut emmissions and save energy.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released a report in April 2007 highlighting the importance of energy efficient buildings in the global campaign to combat climate change.

“By some conservative estimates, the building sector worldwide could deliver emissions reductions of 1.8 billion tons of CO2,” says UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. “A more aggressive energy efficiency policy might deliver over two billion tons or close to three times the amount scheduled to be reduced under the Kyoto Protocol.”

Currently the building sector has it’s CO2 emmissions are rising at the rate of one and a half to two percent per year. So conservation, higher efficiency, better insulation and renewable energy are key elements to dramatically reduce this trend. Sustainable building practice has attracted some high-profile projects and has gone mainstream over the last few years. In May-2007, The Clinton Initiative launched the Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program, a five Billion dollar project that will create more efficient energy consumption in existing uban buildings.

The new green standard Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) has garnered a new respect in the building industry and has has a tremdous amount of public interest.LEED certifications take into account site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. Some insurance companies are now offering lower insurance rates due to the lower risk factor…. everybody wins.

In-joy,

Bruce

Energy From The Community - Good Energy Films