Photovoltaic Systems

The founders of Noble Home, based in West Somerville, Massachusetts, saw first-hand the manner with which homes were being constructed in the United States  — big, cheap, toxic, and out of the price range of many families.  So, they set out to create a new way.  Their home kits are versatile, easy to put together, sustainable, affordable, and healthy.  They offer elements such as greenhouses, root cellars, water collection, solar, wind, and even human-powered energy! 

They are also working on a solar heating system which
uses the earth as a thermal mass.  This is how they explain the system: "The
roof system will collect enough summertime heat to be ducted into the
ground around and underneath the house.  During the winter months, this
heat will radiate back inside while the house also collects winter
passive solar heat."  This is known as Passive Annual Heat Storage
(PAHS) and was first used in the early 1980′s.  Noble Home is even
looking for customers willing to try out this system with material
costs paid by them: where do I sign up? 

Noble Home does not use any
materials that off gas.  The designs mostly include locally grown woods,
compressed straw panels, and aluminum doors and windows.  They also
offer natural interior finishes as an alternative to painting or
staining.

Nobel estimates that their finished homes will have cost between $100-$150/square foot depending on how much of the work you do yourself.  They suggest that the average custom-designed home costs about $200/square foot today; the majority of these homes are not energy efficient and are filled with toxic materials, making Noble a very attractive option for a green and healthy home.

Noble’s homes are available in one and two-story.  In this article are photos
from Jennifer Morgan’s two-story Noble Home project on Cape Cod.  It
looks like a beautiful home.  To learn more about Nobel Home, visit
their website.

Photo credits: Noble Home.

Last month, while everyone was still coming down from presidential election frenzy and ramping up for Greenbuild, Building Design + Construction offered up another distraction: their annual white paper on the State of Green Building.  This is the sixth in an annual series that was initially inspired by the success of Greenbuild 2002.  While reports from the early years included remarks on the chances for the green building movement to keep rolling, the editors get a little more definitive this time around, starting on page four: "…no matter where you stand personally on the social, economic, political, or environmental issues related to climate change, you will soon have no choice but to factor it into your professional work."

A Decree: Factor It In

More than a rallying cry: this is a decree.  Not that it’s breaking news
–- but the editors at Building Design + Construction were taking a step beyond echoing the
observation that the green building movement is on its way to
mainstream.  They were attempting to motivate their readers.

The white
paper, entitled "Green Buildings + Climate Change," embraces a much
more outward facing agenda than past years’ reports, which always
focused on analyzing the green building movement itself (topics
included Life Cycle Assessment and Green Buildings and the Bottom
Line).  This year’s table of contents reads like a What’s What in
Sustainability, with reporting on major national, regional, state, and
local climate change initiatives, current possibilities for a cap and
trade system, and a discussion of the prominent studies and suggested
mitigation strategies that have jarred the environmental movement in
recent years.

A Matter of Degrees

To introduce all of this, the editors dedicated Chapter
One to a cliff notes version of the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4, 2007), put out by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change –- "…the most scientifically valid and politically unbiased resource on
climate change available."  AR4 removes reasonable doubt that human
activity warms the planet, and shows us that all those scary numbers,
percentages, and estimated future degrees Celsius are … getting scarier.

This information is carefully tied into green buildings, the crucial
role the built environment could play in mitigating climate change
(approximately 40% of the nation’s energy is sucked into buildings), and the fact that the AEC industry has hardly begun to wield its power.  To quote, "only a small percent of new commercial buildings, and an even smaller
percentage of new homes, gets any kind of green treatment … the
situation is even more distressing when it comes to existing buildings,
which represent about 98% of the square footage in place in any one
year."  It would be nice to have some firmer numbers on the rate with
which market transformation isn’t happening, but the idea is pretty
clear.  Green Buildings + Climate Change pounds out the message: We
have a problem here and, building industry folks, you’ve got to start
helping to fix it.

22 Suggestions to Green

Readers are left with a comprehensive, well-thought
out list of 22 suggestions for AEC professionals to green their
practices.  There is also a section dedicated to the virtues of building
commissioning, which is demonstrated to pay for itself many times over
in umpteen studies, but just hasn’t caught hold yet: “Only about 1% of
buildings are commissioned,” says the U.S. Department of Energy.  The
authors aren’t preaching to the choir.  Greening isn’t happening on a
large scale yet because the building industry (the audience for this
white paper) isn’t making it happen, isn’t convincing clients.

Although
BD+C’s climate change survey of 900+ AEC professionals showed that 95%
of respondents said they had acted to "address climate change in
their personal lives," there was a “vocal” contingent of skeptics
(again, unfortunately, we didn’t get numbers on this).  Says a project manager
in Tennessee: “The so-called environmental movement is not based on
sound principles, but as a means to redistribute wealth and move our
civilization backwards.”  So, it’s not just inertia or the perceived
expense that’s holding green building back.  A lack of personal
motivation is another serious hurdle that needs to be overcome. Green
Buildings + Climate Change puts forth a good effort on addressing that
situation.

White Paper Download

[+] Green Buildings + Climate Change [PDF, Download w/ free registration]

Located in a formerly desolate area of downtown St. Louis, the William A. Kerr Foundation building is a showcase for sustainable renovation strategies.  It started out in the late 1800′s as a bathhouse (it sits above a natural mineral spring), and thereafter as a paint warehouse — over time, it fell into disrepair.  The neighborhood was blighted when it was acquired by the owners, and they wanted to restore the building for the foundation’s offices and educational activities.  Subsequent to remediation and renovation, it was awarded 58 out of a possible 69 points by the USGBC and received LEED Platinum certification.  The William A. Kerr Foundation building has the following green features:

• The first wind turbine in the city of St. Louis
• 3.5 kW PVL system and solar hot water heating
• Raised access-plenum HVAC floor
• A green roof, bioswales, and rain barrels
• Bicycle racks and interior showers
• Low-flow plumbing fixtures
• Solatube Light tubes for natural lighting
• Rapidly renewable materials such as bamboo, cork, and Marmoleum

According to Vertegy, a full-service sustainable consultancy, the 4,800 square foot building was renovated at a cost of $1.5 million.  In addition, last May, ED+C published a case study of the building and described the building’s unique restoration.

Image credits: Trailnet (top); Urban Review STL (bottom three).

Emily Kroll, CEO and founder of upholstered furniture company EKLA HOME, has furniture design and environmentalism in her blood.  The granddaughter of a furniture designer on one side, and an architectural and scrap metal recycler on the other, Kroll says she is "passionate about changing the way the furniture business works in the United States."  She plans to do this by eliminating toxins, limiting waste and using
sustainable materials.  And EKLA certainly has a very impressive list
of sustainable practices, perhaps one of the most impressive on the
green furniture market today. 

ELKA is a member of the Organic Trade
Association, Sustainable Furniture Council, and Co-Op America.  They
have third-party certifications by FSC, Oeko-tex, KRAV, SCS Gold,
and GREENGUARD.  Their practices include using raw materials sourced as
close to manufacturing facility as possible, producing all products in
the U.S., and using only organic and non-toxic materials and
the lowest VOC finishes possible.  EKLA also uses reclaimed wood whenever
possible and, otherwise, the wood is FSC Alder, a sustainable crop. 

Other
small details are paid attention as well such as recycling packing
materials and operating the workshop on as much natural light as
possible.  One aspect that I particularly like is that no chemical
flame-retardants are used, which can be highly toxic and are found on
products ranging from pillows to children’s pajamas.

Their website is currently only displaying five style options at this
time, but the pieces are modern and attractive, especially the Camille,
Kristina, and Milano (pictured in this article).  I have listed the specific
eco-elements of some pieces below the photo.  EKLA is certainly making
an outstanding effort to create green furniture.  A sentence on EKLA’s
website states their goals beautifully : "Our devotion to craftsmanship
and quality produces pieces that last a lifetime, and are lush and
luxurious but never compromise our dedication to the environment."   
Visit their website for more information. 

MILANO SOFA ROUGE – 100% organic wool, dyed with fiber reactive low impact, non-toxic dye.  Construction: Natural Rubber, 100% organic US grown and milled wool,
100% organic cotton barrier cloth, FSC alder frame and legs, recycled
steel springs, Safecoat no VOC stain.

KRISTINA SECTIONAL CITRUS – 100% organic wool, dyed with fiber reactive low impact, non-toxic dye.  Construction: Natural Rubber, 100% organic US grown and milled wool, 100% organic cotton barrier cloth, FSC alder frame and legs, recycled steel springs, Safecoat no VOC stain.

Image credits: Elka Home.