Design > Introduction to Green Building

The idea is that the better a building utilizes the resources available to it (like solar energy or the natural cooling properties of a tree line), and the less of a drain it is on those resources (minimizing water usage, for instance), the more stable and healthy the whole system becomes: environment, building, and even tenant.

Best of all? Thinking forward in this way no longer comes with a daunting price tag. Due to a number of factors – time-tested technology, better production methods, increased federal and state funding, better availability to suppliers and installers, increased social and business awareness of the significance of our impact on our environment – green building has become competitively priced. There are even special mortgages designed to make energy efficiency an easy priority in your search for a new home. This is not a luxury option for movie stars’ third homes in Bermuda: it is now within our reach.

If you’ve decided that you’d like to make a solid investment in your home’s future by utilizing green building techniques, you may already be familiar with some of the many options available. The following is intended as a broad introduction to what your options are, primarily as a homeowner, at varying levels of investment. Something to remember is that the return on your investment of any size in green building is best measured over years: what can seem like a prohibitive start-up cost can translate into incredible lifecycle savings.

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