Services
Articles
It’s Easy Being Green
By Amy Hutton, CGBP
In 2002, when I was early stages of planning my wedding, my fiancé and I decided to get married at my family’s property in St. Helena. I grew up there, my mother grew up there, and my grandparents still live there today. At one end of the property, at the back fence was an enormous pile of bricks. Those bricks had been there my whole life. I didn’t really notice them; they were just part of the landscape. But when you plan on having 150 people over to your house for a wedding, a lot of things come into focus. While my mother fretted over those bricks (it turns out they had been there her entire life, too) my crafty fiancé and my resourceful aunt and uncle decided to jump to action. They got those bricks into the old wheelbarrow, and stack after stack, moved them between two elm trees closer to where the reception was to be held. In a weekend, my family had created a lovely “new” brick patio that was the perfect space for the caterer to set up a bar for the reception. It was at my reception that my sweet, 90-year old grandfather rocked back on his heels, coins jingling in his pocket, and said to me, “Yup, I always knew those bricks would come in handy one day.”
Green remodeling doesn’t have to mean using expensive materials or time-consuming construction techniques. At the core, it means using common sense about how a remodeling project should be planned, implemented and completed. Being “green” can simply mean being crafty, resourceful, and handy.
Build It Green is an organization whose green building principles encompass these four fundamental objectives:
1) Conserve natural resources
2) Use energy wisely
3) Improve indoor air quality
4) Make communities more livable
Some would argue that remodeling is inherently an “un-green” activity. Each year close to 9 million tons of construction and demolition debris is disposed of in California’s landfills, accounting for 22% of the entire state’s waste stream. We also know that people are not going to stop remodeling their homes. So it’s up to us, the professional remodeler, to figure out ways to reduce the impact. Careful planning helps to determine what materials can be reused or recycled and allows time to source local materials and utilize providers that can help responsibly dispose of construction waste. Build It Green (builditgreen.org) has a listing of contractors, designers and architects that are Certified Green Building Professionals. In other words, listings of crafty, resourceful and handy people that can help you plan and implement your upcoming project.