See listings for the upcoming CGP classes I'll be teaching in Montana this month. The classes are now also eligible for AIA credit as well. (Hint, Hint)
2010 NAHB Certified Green Professional Classes- February 2010
Bozeman, Montana
Green Building for Building Professionals February 15th and February 16th
Business Management for Building Professionals February 17th
Instructor: John Freer
Contact SWMBIA for Info and Registration (406) 585-8181 or NAHBgreen.org
Missoula, Montana
Green Building for Building Professionals February 25th and February 26th
Business Management for Building Professionals February 27th
Instructor: John Freer
Contact MBIA For Info and Registration (406) 543-4423 or NAHBgreen.org
Monday, February 1, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
IBS 2010: Goodbye to Big Houses and Big Hair!
The mood at the International Builder's Show in Vegas this year was much more optimistic than last, to say the least, but the trend was definitely a less is more school of thought. From the media coverage of the Las Vegas Sun, to the show floor, to the presentations, and yes, even the entertainment; people were talking about doing more with less.
Builders and vendors alike were looking not only for ways to reduce square footage without sacrificing amenities, but even more importantly ways to enhance home performance without driving up cost. The secret's getting out that green building can be cost effective, and even the nations largest production builders were participating in seminars and training on the processes and practices of building a high performance, sustainable home. It sure beats the early days at IBS for some of the green presentations, buried in the catacombs of the Orlando convention center, about 8 attendees and two of them employees.
The change is here, and thus my tie-in to the photo. Styx was the entertainment at this year's Spike party, and even though the big 80's hair was conspicuously absent, they managed to still put on a great show. That's right, doing more with less.......
Monday, January 18, 2010
John at IBS 2010
Once again this year John will be speaking at the International Builder's Show 2010 in Las Vegas. Stop in and catch one of his presentations this week.
Working With The National Green Building Standard
Date: Tuesday January 19
Time: 3:30-5:00 p.m.
Location: North 258-260
Building Green On Budget
Date: Wednesday January 20
Time: 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Location: South 228
Matching Your Customer To Their Green Index
Date: Thursday January 21
Time: 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Location: South 228
Working With The National Green Building Standard
Date: Tuesday January 19
Time: 3:30-5:00 p.m.
Location: North 258-260
Building Green On Budget
Date: Wednesday January 20
Time: 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Location: South 228
Matching Your Customer To Their Green Index
Date: Thursday January 21
Time: 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Location: South 228
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Half Of Non-Residential Buildings Will Be Green By 2015 -Study
Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal last week that predicts half of all non residential construction in the US will be "green" by 2015. The article comes from the results of a two year independently funded study by Greg Kats published in his book "Greening Our Built World." Kats' study shows an average energy reduction in green buildings of 33%, while an additional upfront construction cost of only about 2%. Along with other intrinsic benefits of green construction like water conservation, better indoor air, and better occupant comfort; non residential building owners have been recognizing for quite some time now the operational cost savings associated with high performance buildings. These numbers suggest some encouraging trends and residential won't be far behind!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
What If We're All Wrong?
With the Copenhagen Climate Conference wrapping up, and as we head into another Montana winter, a colleague sent out this cartoon from Joel Pett in the Lexington Herald-Leader and it couldn't be more timely.
It happens every year as we dip below zero here in Montana and snow starts to fall (like today.) I'll inevitably have a few jabs to the tune of "Hey, where's your global warming, now!" I'm going to carry a copy of this around with me so I don't have to endlessly debate anymore. What if we are all wrong? What if we do create a better world for nothing? I could live with that.
It happens every year as we dip below zero here in Montana and snow starts to fall (like today.) I'll inevitably have a few jabs to the tune of "Hey, where's your global warming, now!" I'm going to carry a copy of this around with me so I don't have to endlessly debate anymore. What if we are all wrong? What if we do create a better world for nothing? I could live with that.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Green Salad Dressing???
I just saw a great video post from author and psychologist Barry Schwartz on the Paradox of Choice, and how in our western society the sheer number of choices we have are more paralyzing then they are liberating. When he talked about the fact that we have 175 different kinds of salad dressing available at the grocery store and the dilemma this causes for some people in making a choice I couldn’t help but think about the sheer number of different green building choices and programs that are available today.
It’s not 175 yet, but herein lies what I think is one of the greatest challenges in the green building movement to date. Now that green building is no longer a niche market in our industry how do we tell what’s real and what’s greenwash? More importantly, how does our consumer? I did a quick search for green building certification programs and just on the first two pages I came up with a pretty long list… NAHB Green Home Building Guidelines, LEED for Homes, The ANSI ICC National Green Building Standard, Energy Star, Northwest Energy Star, Earthcraft Homes, Builder’s Challenge, Earth Advantage…and this doesn’t even start to take into account the number of local and regional programs that add an even greater number of programs and choices for builders and consumers.
I can see it in the eyes of some of the builders I talk with and with many of the clients as well. They’re paralyzed with choice and in their inability to make what they perceive to be the absolute right decision they make none at all. The guiding principles of green building are pretty concrete. When I look at the criteria of all of the different green home certification programs the same principles; Lot Design, Resource Conservation, Energy Efficiency, Water Conservation, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Operation and Maintenance are the core of all of them. Even the Chinese Ministry of Construction recently released their own green building evaluation standard and their categories…yep…you guessed it, the same six basic criteria areas.
The differences lie only in what is considered to be the right amount of energy, resource and water savings, which air quality standard must be followed for a product to be considered low-VOC, what the acceptable percentage of permeable pavement should be installed and other hair splitting that only seems to undermine the whole process. I find so many people firmly entrenched in the belief that the program they use is the best and all others are unacceptable that they refuse to even look at another program.
So how do we keep from becoming salad dressing and putting so many different products out there that we effectively paralyze our consumer? I see great signs of moving toward a consensus on what green building is and how to talk about it, but the competing programs keep moving further and further apart in the battle for supremacy.
For those of us who've been around long enough, I know you can remember the early 1990's when we had multiple, competing building codes. Groups including Building Code Administrators International (BOCA), The International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO), The Council of American Building Officials (CABO) and the Southern Building Code
Congress International (SBCCI) all had developed their own set of building codes. It took over four years, but these legacy groups worked to form what we now know as the International Codes Council (ICC) and develop the International Building Code (IBC). The IBC includes what homeowners know as the International Residential Code (IRC,) and this code has now been adopted in 48 states and continues to be THE benchmark for building safety, structure and fire protection.
When will we have only one green building standard and what will it look like? Sorry did I say all of this out loud?
It’s not 175 yet, but herein lies what I think is one of the greatest challenges in the green building movement to date. Now that green building is no longer a niche market in our industry how do we tell what’s real and what’s greenwash? More importantly, how does our consumer? I did a quick search for green building certification programs and just on the first two pages I came up with a pretty long list… NAHB Green Home Building Guidelines, LEED for Homes, The ANSI ICC National Green Building Standard, Energy Star, Northwest Energy Star, Earthcraft Homes, Builder’s Challenge, Earth Advantage…and this doesn’t even start to take into account the number of local and regional programs that add an even greater number of programs and choices for builders and consumers.
I can see it in the eyes of some of the builders I talk with and with many of the clients as well. They’re paralyzed with choice and in their inability to make what they perceive to be the absolute right decision they make none at all. The guiding principles of green building are pretty concrete. When I look at the criteria of all of the different green home certification programs the same principles; Lot Design, Resource Conservation, Energy Efficiency, Water Conservation, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Operation and Maintenance are the core of all of them. Even the Chinese Ministry of Construction recently released their own green building evaluation standard and their categories…yep…you guessed it, the same six basic criteria areas.
The differences lie only in what is considered to be the right amount of energy, resource and water savings, which air quality standard must be followed for a product to be considered low-VOC, what the acceptable percentage of permeable pavement should be installed and other hair splitting that only seems to undermine the whole process. I find so many people firmly entrenched in the belief that the program they use is the best and all others are unacceptable that they refuse to even look at another program.
So how do we keep from becoming salad dressing and putting so many different products out there that we effectively paralyze our consumer? I see great signs of moving toward a consensus on what green building is and how to talk about it, but the competing programs keep moving further and further apart in the battle for supremacy.
For those of us who've been around long enough, I know you can remember the early 1990's when we had multiple, competing building codes. Groups including Building Code Administrators International (BOCA), The International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO), The Council of American Building Officials (CABO) and the Southern Building Code
Congress International (SBCCI) all had developed their own set of building codes. It took over four years, but these legacy groups worked to form what we now know as the International Codes Council (ICC) and develop the International Building Code (IBC). The IBC includes what homeowners know as the International Residential Code (IRC,) and this code has now been adopted in 48 states and continues to be THE benchmark for building safety, structure and fire protection.
When will we have only one green building standard and what will it look like? Sorry did I say all of this out loud?
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