“What Is Green Building?
“Green building integrates natural resource, human health, and community concerns into building design, construction, and operation that significantly reduce or eliminate the negative impact on the environment and occupants by addressing energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor air quality, waste reduction and occupant productivity and health.”
Anyone doing any long range planning in ISKCON (or outside it for that matter) should watch this DVD.
“Green Builders, a one-hour high definition special, profiles a cast of green building pioneers who have taken the leap into making their part of the “built environment” a more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly place.
“There is no single way to build green. Green Builders takes a wide-ranging look at a variety of approaches and levels of commitment and at the individuals who have helped turn green building theory into reality. These individuals are not just builders and designers; they’re teachers and homeowners, corporate leaders and academic specialists, leaders of institutions and universities as well as renegade inventors. From The Willow School to PNC Bank to the first solar-hydrogen home called The Hopewell Project, people talk about why they made the move to go green, what the challenges were, and how their project has fared.
“In most cases, one finds that a green building project has more to do with smart planning and a mindset change about energy use than expensive technologies or consumer sacrifice. Innovation helps, and there are plenty of innovations included in Green Builders that are making green technology effective and affordable. Geothermal storage, wind farms and extensive solar array systems are examined in the program. As the stories in the documentary demonstrate, it is crucial for us to change our perspective on how we build, recognizing the wasteful impacts of the traditional mode of building and operating our structures, and realizing the environmental and economic benefits of building green. Only then will the green building movement be successful.
“The individuals in Green Builders have made the move to building green without suffering, sacrificing, or experimenting with a wispy might-happen. These are real projects on the ground, working businesses and college campuses that prove you can change your carbon footprint once you change your way of looking at how a structure operates. Collectively, the green builders are building the foundation for a more widespread movement toward making America’s built environment less harmful to the dwindling supply of healthy natural resources and even less expensive to operate. Their homes and offices are the proving grounds for green building, and their personal experiences reveal that building greener is less complicated and expensive than you probably thought, and more rewarding in the long run.”
February 5, 2011 at 10:58 am
In the 80’s , the NV planning dept did pretty exhaustive research into renewable/green energy and found that wind and solar were not economically competitive to grid electric.
Now that you’re getting nat gas …
The only really viable energy savings for your locale is earth shelter construction.
Maybe Raghu could chime in here re his home energy savings stats .
February 7, 2011 at 4:08 pm
The technology of renewable energy has far surpassed that which was available in teh 1980s, but I totally agree that earth sheltered housing is the way to go.
February 7, 2011 at 8:09 pm
Nuthin to do with tech.
Alt energy efficiency increases are at best a few % since then .
PV solar is still $4/ friken watt .
You’ns just dont have the annualized avg SUPPLY of sun or wind.
Dont feel bad — the entire northeast coast is about the same !!
The latest scam govt has foisted is this “viability” of alt energy.