Being green begins with waste
February 21st, 2007
I am the Owner of a company called Sage Development and we build housing here in the Rouge Valley.
We complete about $3m a year in production and are currently expanding our operations to over $15m annually.
I bought my first piece of property in 1974 at 18 years old and have not stopped since. As a licensed General Contractor and Engineering Contractor since 1981 and owning and building real estate since well before disco.
And I will probably still be building when it comes back. I have kept my gold lame shoes just in case.
So, what about the concept of “Green Building”?
This topic is large and we could take days talking about the specifics of what is green and how do we build green. But today I am going to focus a bit on a couple of specific topics about this hot subject. The focus is about what must be done before we can start to call ourselves “Green”
Let me give you some statistics. First let’s talk about waste….
We have all driven past construction projects and seen the mountain of trash that usually sits around piled high.
The NAHB current estimates are that 40% of all materials delivered to a construction jobsite are shipped back out as waste. 40%.
That includes packaging materials, breakage and unused materials.
• 124 million tons of construction debris is buried in landfills every year. That is enough debris to build a wall about 30 feet high and 30 feet thick around the entire coast of the continental United States (4,993 miles).
• Each year the United States buries about 33 million tons of wood related construction and demolition debris in our landfills. As microorganisms decompose this wood, releases about 5 million tons of carbon equivalents in the form of methane gas. This is equivalent to the yearly emissions of 3,736,000 passenger cars.
• Did you know that re-using the lumber from just one house (2,000 square feet) saves 33 mature trees?
• Most all other industrialized countries recycle construction waste. In Denmark, as an example,
most of the building and construction waste – 94 per cent - is recycled. In the U.S. less than 3% of construction waste is reused.
• 50 percent of consumed materials (globally) are used in construction and remodeling.
And now some statistics about housing sizes…
• Since 1950 the average household size has decreased in the U.S. On average we now have less than 3 and a half people occupying each house in the U.S.
• Homes in the U.S. are 38 percent larger in 2002 than in 1975, but house less people per household.
Housing and construction practices for waste and actual building have not been radically changed or improved in over 100 years. We can build better houses and we can build houses faster, but we do so at an enormous cost to our resources and ultimately ourselves.
There are three main ideas regarding green housing today. And before we can talk about what to put into the building of a house we must talk about what we should not be doing.
Number 1: We need to recycle construction waste. There is a great need and actual profit from putting these resources back into our homes and economy, not the local landfill. Not recycling construction waste means more trucks impacting our traffic and roads. More landfill space wasted by dumping good materials back into the ground. Not recycling adds significant costs to the price of housing. And finally, not recycling means that there are enormous economic opportunities lost by not creating businesses to take advantage of this business opportunity. Construction recycling is very profitable and a very easy way for a company to make good money from trash. All cities should require mandatory recycling for construction waste. And those cities can benefit from sharing in the profits of those businesses.
Number 2: We need to build housing appropriate to our needs. Housing sizes are increasing at an alarming rate. Building permits show that on average housing size is increasing by almost 8% per year. Today based upon 2005 building permits activity, the average house size is over 2200 square feet up from 1750 square feet 3 years ago. The average family in the United State is less than 3.14 people per home. In fact household occupancy has been steadily decreasing since 1920
Two years ago, as an experiment I built a housing community of individual cottages, two and three bedrooms with less than 1000 square feet. We perceived an underserved demand for smaller homes. We sold all 13 in less than 2 months and could have sold another 20. Surprisingly enough, I had difficulty convincing the City and Planning Commissions that this type of housing was needed.
Number 3: Building Green isn’t a luxury or a fad, its just good common sense.
This year I attended a Conference called West Coast Green if SF. The conference was presented by Christy Graham, daughter of the famous concert Promoter Bill Graham. She runs a non profit group encouraging green building. The purpose of the conference was to bring together design and building professionals to discus current “Green building practices. After some discussion it was decided that on the last day of this three day conference, homeowners and DIY’ers would be invited to attend.
The conference was a gamble. The promoters needed 2500 people to sign up to break even. On the 1st day of the conference 4500 builders and designers showed up and on that 3rd and final day, with the homeowners in attendance there were 8000 people packed into the conference center all asking the same thing. “How can I build Green”?
Homeowners want to build in and live in housing that is smart. Housing that is safe. And housing that works in concert with our resources. We have the ability to do that, and we are in very small steps. There is a market here that has not yet even begun to flourish and we will all be the beneficiaries
of that market. We can live better, healthier lives in safer homes and not promote the environmental wreck we are headed toward.
So, let me tell you about what we are doing in my company. We are developing a program called Green, Greener, Greenest. This program is designed to assist homeowners in understanding the choices available in housing and educate about what are the benefits and costs.
Here’s how it works; we build all our homes to a “green standard”. The one we have chosen for our entry level is the “Energy Star” program which is geared towards energy use and consumption. As an example; your refrigerator consumes almost 25% of all monthly energy cost. By using a low energy fridge, there is a substantial energy saving to the homeowner. Dual glazed windows, energy efficient hating and cooling are the backbone of the Energy Star program. That is our “Green” tier.
Now if a potential homeowner should wish to move up to a higher level of “green” we have options available, such as low VOC paints and sustainable wood, flooring and cabinetry that can be built into the home. At this level of “Greener”, we participate with the homeowner to share the additional costs and help them decide what gives them the biggest bang for their buck.
At the “greenest” level a homeowner can elect to add such features as photovoltaic panels to aid in energy consumption, they can add landscape that is drought resistant and uses very little water to maintain. These costs are borne by the potential homebuyer with assistance from the builder. This is one small step toward understanding the language and options that exist in building Green. Green, Greener, Greenest is just one way to actively engage home owners and builder in the process of sustainable building. There will undoubtedly be many more as the market begins to require this standard from builders.
The marketplace can thrive by understanding and capitalizing on the new opportunities in building the green way. Not to just make money and profit, but by contributing to a process that is still in its infancy. We have been told that there are no new ideas any longer. The internet has proven that to be wrong, and the homebuilding industry is ripe for innovation and change. It is safe to say that building and buying homes will look very different in 20 years. And some people will make a lot of money showing us how to be more sensible homeowners. I would like to participate in that change and I hope that you will too.
