GreenBuild Blog

Saturday, October 17, 2009

German green home wins Solar Decathlon

German’s PV-covered home won this year’s competition by producing twice as much energy as it used using the Net Metering final phase of the competition. The U.S. Department of Energy supported the contest and announced the final results. Why can’t every home produce more energy than it uses? It’s time for a wholesale rethinking of “traditional” home design to a “new normal” design that makes every home a net contributor to the electric grid.

Posted by Jerry on 10/17/2009 at 10:27 AM

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Friday, October 16, 2009

Green Building Home Certifications Continue to Grow

Clearly, the housing slowdown has affected the move toward green homes. While LEED has almost tripled the number of certified homes (through September) from year-end and has increased new home registrations by 50%, the overall numbers are still disappointing, given that the program has been around for more than two years. It certainly appears that the more mainstream NAHB National Green Building Program, announced to great fanfare in February 2008, has yet to gain any significant traction among the nation’s homebuilders. One would have to conclude that the ENERGY STAR program is still the most viable and most used new home rating system in the U.S., with 17 percent market share of all new homes in 2008 and more than 20 percent in 15 states, according to the US EPA.

Posted by Jerry on 10/16/2009 at 10:03 AM

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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Trend Watch: Oro Valley Receives LEED-CS Silver Certification

For the first time in Arizona history, a major retail project is delivering green for the state. Vestar Development Co.’s Oro Valley Marketplace has earned Silver LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, marking the first retail project in the state to earn the designation, and one of the first in the Southwest.

The Oro Valley Marketplace Shops A building was awarded 30 points in the LEED for Core and Shell 2.0 rating system, achieving a Silver certification. Yudelson Associates provided guidance to the design/construction/ownership team on LEED requirements and prepared all documentation for certification. The project met all seven prerequisites under the LEED-CS system, including minimum energy performance and minimum ventilation standards, without major changes in design.

Download this Trend Report (PDF 140KB)

Posted by Sky on 10/13/2009 at 01:43 PM

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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The Challenge and Promise of Green Buildings: Chapter 10 of Green Building Trends: Europe

Green buildings are growing rapidly in the United States, with cumulative new projectregistrations under the LEED rating system growing 50 percent in 2006, 75 percent in 2007, and more than 80 percent in 2008. Yet more than half of LEED project certifications are still at the lower levels of Certified and Silver, indicating that the ability of design and construction teams to deliver high-level green buildings is still at an early stage of development. By contrast, the BREEAM system has certified about 9 percent of its buildings at the Excellent level, equivalent to LEED Platinum, the highest level, against about 5 percent in the LEED system.