Today’s Green Construction Blog

View Comments

• Today's building climate is rather confusing with the amount of information we receive from magazines and the internet. What is "green building"? How do you differentiate between green marketing and building practices that truly reduce energy use, add health and safety, and above all else add comfort to your home or workplace? I am a general contractor in Marin County California. I have a small company with an eye on the big picture (co2 reduction, water conservation, responsible material selection and use, healthy indoor spaces). I am interested in networking with designers, homeowners, business owners and anyone else who wants to contribute to the improvement of our built environment and its impact on our world. We must move beyond our short-term views of how we create and use the successes of others to guide our decisions and investments. Our kids are counting on us. Please contact me if you would like help planning a remodel, or would just like to sort through the abundance of information out there. I welcome the conversation.
  David Nyberg, owner NYBERG CONSTRUCTION

• I too am interested in networking with those interested in green building. I build only in steel in New Orleans and have a foundation system that I am patenting that eliminates structual concrete; I actually won an award for it from the Cold Formed Steel Engineers Institute Award for Innovative Design. I don't think the average person is aware that the US recycles more steel than any other material, even paper. So basically I am building foundations out of recycled materials but also at a cost substantially less than concrete, substantially less waste because the foundation is built at the factory to spec and scrap is recyled versus wood cut in the field, substantially less time as there is no cure time and our average waste fills up a maximum of two contractor bags for a 1600 sq ft home but the interest is not there. I discuss green certification to homeowners as the foundation can lead towards certification but there is little interest to the average consumer. Green builders need to network, educate and come together if we are going to make a difference.

  Tyler

• For those of you looking to learn more about sustainable design and construction, The Go Green Home in Los Angeles offers a Living Laboratory where you can learn how a veteran contractor, Fernando Feldman, designed and built a [pre-rated] LEED Platinum home. http://www.GoGreenHomeLA.com. We also have a video library of the design and construction process, photo archive, and there will be tours and workshops in Fall 2009. For event info you can check out http://www.GoGreenHomeLA.com and click on the events page.

  Fernando is happy to share his green building knowledge so that more and more buildings can be built to the highest standards of sustainabilty. Feel free to contact him via http://www.gogreencalifornia.com if you'd like to pick his brain.

• I think it is fantastic how we are using renewable energy and going green in so many ways. I think we also need to do things like reducing our energy usage, like installing geothermal heat pumps to replace high energy heating and cooling systems.

• Todd,
  Green is of course the way we need to be going. Keep up the good work. Without bloggers like yourself helping to spread the word, it'll be that much harder to get our environment back to where it needs to be.