Many of us recycle and reuse, but there’s something vaguely intimidating about making the move to composting. I’ll admit that I was guilty of hesitation, worrying about the smelliness of the endeavor and never entirely sure of what can and can’t be composted in the first place. But after a bit of investigation and minimal effort, I’ve realized that composting is really easy, affordable, useful, and sustainable.
We cannot sustainably keep pace with the world’s continuously growing hunger for energy if we continue along our current path. Especially in the building sector, however, there exists an enormous potential for energy savings where we can reduce energy use by 80 to 90% without any reduction in comfort.
Countries around the world are realizing this. Only “Net zero energy buildings” will be built inSouth Korea and California as of 2020 and throughout Europe, all new builds will have to be constructed as “nearly zero energy buildings” by 2020. Europe’s future energy efficiency directive also calls for high annual retrofit rates of public building stock
Green building might be little more than a fringe hippie idea if not for certification. The medals and honors now available through rating systems have enabled a good and altruistic effort to become a highly marketable quality. LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – is now the most well-known and well-used certification system, claiming nearly 9 billion square feet of space participating in its various certification programs globally. But it’s not alone, and it’s not necessarily the greenest of the green. The relatively new Living Building Challenge has been steadily gathering fans in the green building community for tougher-than-LEED standards such as net-zero energy and net-zero water.
Pick up the current copy of Home Improvement Magazine. We have 2 projects featured in this years Green Guide. Click here to read the rest…….
