Green Building

​Thoughts on Green Building

Back in 2006 or so I was getting ready to build a new home for my family.  Power bills were just beginning to get tough around here, taking up way more of the budget than I was happy with.  I served on the board of directors​ of our local Homebuilders association, and at one of the board meetings a young builder had returned from some conference about "Green Building".  Nobody knew exactly what it was, but he sure did seem excited about it.  My power bills seemed awful high, I thought I'd check it out at an upcoming seminar.  What I learned in those few days changed building and home design for me forever. Kind of shocking to think that what our industry had been doing for over forty years might be wrong.  What we learned is that homes can be built with more comfort, better longevity, with better air quality and use up to fifty percent less power.  All while being environmentally friendly to boot. I built one of the first green certified homes our area, also achieved the Energy Star certification for it.  Guess you could call me an early adopter.  Since then Columbia area builders have built many certified homes.  We don't even call them "green" anymore. We call them High Performance Homes now. And the best part is that we figured out how to make this kind of building just as affordable as the old way of doing things.  I can get you up to speed of this type of building if you're interested.  

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