Practical Eco

21 finalists announced for Sustainable NC awards

The Sustainable NC Awards recognize businesses, organizations, and individuals who have demonstrated leadership and long-term commitment to a sustainable economy and communities in the state. There were over 60 nominations and now 21 finalists have been selected across five award categories. See the website here for the full listing and for comments about each nominee.

Winners will be revealed and presented on November 11 at the Sustainable NC Awards ceremony to be held at the Marbles Museum in Raleigh. At the half-day event where finalists will share their sustainability stories Cree CEO Chuck Swoboda features as the keynote speaker.

2-day Green Building for Professionals course in Chapel Hill August 31

Michael Chandler, Owner of Chandler Design-Build, will be teaching a two-day class, "Green Building for Building Professionals," in Chapel Hill on August 31 and September 1.

Michael has been building solar and green homes in the region for over thirty years. His company's projects have drawn national recognition -– receiving first place in 2005 for "Aging in Place Design for a New Custom Home" at the NAHB International Building Show and second place in 2006 at the NAHB National Green Building Awards for "Custom Home of the Year." Michael also writes for Fine Homebuilding Magazine on structural, plumbing, and aging-in-place design topics, and he is one of the advisors on GreenBuildingAdvisor.com.

This course, which is one of two classes required for the Certified Green Professional designation from the National Association of Home Builders, discusses strategies for incorporating green building techniques into homes without driving up the cost of construction. Fees for the two-day Green Building for Building Professionals class are: $325 for members of the Green Home Bldrs of the Triangle; $350 for HBA members; and $425 for nonmembers. Pre-registration is required. Contact Leigh Scott (leigh (at) hbadoc.com; 919-493-8899) to get a registration form or click here for details.

We've written about Chandler more than once here on Practical Eco, as he's one of the original green heroes in the Triangle area. Our first posting here was 2 years ago.

Make It Right Introduces Pioneering Duplex Designs for New Orleans 9th Ward

Make It Right, the foundation founded by Brad Pitt to help rebuild the Lower 9th Ward, released its green, affordable duplex home designs by fourteen acclaimed local, national and international architects. 

While each of the 14 duplex designs is unique, the architects tackled some common problems and arrived at innovative solutions that could change the way multi-family homes are built:        

Flexibility – A number of the designs feature interchangeable floor plans that allow the families to change the size and configuration of the two homes as their family size, needs or economic situations change.

Integration with the Street – Increasing the elevation of the homes made them safer from flooding, but interrupted the connectedness between the porch and life on the street –a relationship valued by the Lower 9th Ward community.  A number of architects offered solutions to this problem, including creating landings or stoops in the stairways where the family can gather.  

Landscaping as a design and energy element – Several architects incorporated landscaping into their design of these solar-powered, highly energy efficient homes to maximize exposure to sun and shade and cut heating and cooling costs.  And because outdoor living is such a core part of living in the Lower 9th Ward, many of the designs include courtyards, interior gardens, and social use of the area under the elevated house.

Affordability —To cut the cost, but not the quality of these duplexes, several of the architects stacked the houses one on top of the other to reduce the “footprint” of the home and simplify construction.  One of the designs cuts construction costs dramatically by stacking the core of the home and aligning all of the electrical, plumbing, and heating and cooling systems in the center of the structure, much like an elevator shaft in the center of an office building.

The first two Make It Right duplexes are expected to break ground by mid-August. For an in-depth look at the designs for Make It Right duplexes and to learn more about the architects, go to: www.makeitrightnola.org.

Warren Wilson's EcoDorm earns LEED Platinum

Warren Wilson College has earned a LEED Platinum rating for its "EcoDorm" which was opened in 2003.

This is the first college campus building to achieve LEED Platinum in the Existing Buildings (EB) rating category. And this is the fourth LEED certified building on the Warren Wilson campus. The others are Orr Cottage and the Village South and Village North residences which all have LEED Gold ratings.

The EcoDorm was designed by Samsel Architects of Asheville. It's a the two-story structure that houses 36 residents. Warren Wilson students were involved in the planning, research and design of the building, and helped set its four green priorities: energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor air quality and use of local and recyclable materials.

All wood used in the EcoDorm was either recycled or timber milled and finished on campus. The building's energy-saving technologies include solar hot water, photovoltaic panels, high-efficiency boilers and radiant floor heating. Plus, a web-based energy-monitoring system keeps tabs on it all.

One of the more unusual features students came up with is a salvaged 10,000-gallon railroad tanker car; fed by roof runoff, the underground cistern provides water for flushing toilets and irrigating the dorm's permaculture landscaping.

Their full press release is here.

Deltec Homes’ Model built to “NC Healthy Built” Standards

Deltec Homes is a family run business that has been building energy efficient, hurricane resistant, circular homes for 40 years, based in Asheville NC.

Their new model home in Mars Hill, NC (near Asheville,NC) was completed as a North Carolina Healthy Built Home in October 2008. A Grand Opening Celebration is planned for Sunday June 28, 1-5PM and Monday June 29, 10am-4pm in Mars Hill, NC. It will feature:

    * Tours of the New Round, Energy Efficient, 3800 sq ft home
    * Visit Exhibitor Booths
    * Talk with Green Experts
    * Educational Seminars (Designing a Green Home (20-30 min), Introduction to Solar Energy (20-30 min),Understanding Financial Incentives for Building Green (20 min))

The new Deltec Homes’ model home promotes a comprehensive approach to sustainability by integrating the key components of green building design and construction
This includes site selection and development, energy and water efficiency, materials selection, resource efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and homeowner education.

The 3800 square foot model home is projected to use 50% less energy than homes of similar size.

It also focused on indoor environmental quality with continually circulating fresh air, a sealed crawlspace, low VOC finishes and formaldehyde free cabinets.

The home promotes exceptional durability through mold and termite resistant framing, fiber cement siding, and a structural shell that was built in a controlled factory environment to limit exposure to building materials during construction.

Deltec produces all of its homes with 100% renewable energy. The prefabricated, panelized structural shell is built with 78% less waste than a typical stick-built home through Deltec’s extensive recycling and reuse program.

5 Steps to Building Affordable Green Homes

FirstCoast Homes, in Charleston, SC, is one company offering green homes at about the same price as conventional homes. Their Energy Star-rated homes cost only $1000 more per house to build than their previous methods and deliver 20% to 30% more energy efficiency. 

FirstCoast builds primarily starter homes ranging from $129,000 to $209,000 in price. And since 2008 they have built only Energy Star-qualified homes. They now build every home with effective insulation, low-E windows, sealed ducts, 14-SEER heat pumps, and Energy Star-rated Whirlpool appliances.

There are five strategies that FirstCoast follows to deliver Energy Star rated homes at reasonable prices:

1. Back to Basics
Rather than rely on new technologies or products FirstCoast uses typical building methods and improves upon them. They focus on proper installation and third-party evaluation of many of the systems in the house.

2. The Great Seal
One of the most important parts of an efficient home is the tightness of the building envelope. FirstCoast relies on Home Energy Solutions of Charleston to perform methodical sealing of the shell with a combination of foam sealing and caulking throughout the building envelope.  Foam is used to seal the wire and plumbing penetrations through the OSB sheathing, caulk at the base plate and corners, and low-expansion foam around the doors and the windows. This sealing package reduces the potential air infiltration to the home by about 30%.

3. Proper Insulation Installation
By doing a good job of sealing, they avoid the added cost of spray foam insulation and can use cheaper fiberglass, but they stress proper installation.

4. Strategic Cost Savings
FirstCoast realizes savings from strategic moves. The company upgraded its windows to low-E high-performance units, but it reduced the number of windows it uses, which reduces costs. The improved sealing, insulation and windows allow the company to reduce the air conditioning needs by one ton. This saves between $400 and $800 per house.

5. Look for Back-End Deals
Regional programs may also help defray the added costs of shifting to Energy Star building practices and FirstCoast recommends builders connect with local power companies for rebate programs and other benefits. Quite a few of their homes are in electric co-ops which often help off-set the costs if a builder follows their prescriptive requirements.

Source: Builder Online

Caravan Village Aims Higher Than Green

Caravan Village is the vision of architect Tim Watson, as an eco-restorative community of homes. This community, in Franklinville NC, will go beyond the usual concepts of green building. It aims to put more back into the environment that it takes out. That's an almost unheard of idea for housing developments - even so called green developments.

Caravan Village seeks to create a positive inter-generational community by accommodating the needs of aging and infirm in inclusive ways that integrate them into the wider community. So it goes beyond usual concepts of Universal Design or Aging In Place too. It will create a place where people of all ages and abilities can live happily in harmony.

Some of the amenities planned for the community include:

• Solar Photovoltaic Golf Cart charging
• Golf cart lanes
• Shuttle bus stop to other areas
• Space for communal or individual gardening
• Rain Gardens
• Living retention pond
• Permaculture systems
• On site utility co-op

One of the things I particularly like about it is the utility co-op concept where several homes can share resources like solar photovoltaic, solar hot water, air conditioning, rain water storage etc. This can lower the up-front cost for each home to enjoy these benefits which offer cost savings, security and social improvements.

Plus, Tim intends for one in every five homes to be partly subsidized with the occupant taking responsibility for upkeep of the utility co-op in return.

see www.tlwarchitect.com for more information

Eco Everyday in Downtown Greensboro

We know Greensboro is green - it's right there in the name. Site of the Proximity and many other green efforts, it's now home to a green retail experiment that's offering only fairly traded, useful and green products. They seek to excite and educate the community, which is a big goal but a great one.

One of the relatively cool products they offer is this indoor composter that fits into your cabinet space a bit like a trash compactor might. Only this turns your trash into something useful.

If you're in Greensboro, go visit Betsy and Sarah at the store.

<UPDATE - 4-12-09> Betsy had to close down the store but has set up a shop on Etsy in the meantime. See it here. 

Greenspiration - a showcase home in Greensboro

Husband and wife, Mark Raines and Trish Holder were inspired back in 2007 to build a showcase green home. They had a vision of a traditional home that was truly green without looking one bit out of place in a suburban neighborhood. They also believed it could be done within a normal middle-class budget. So that’s exactly what they set out to do; and today the house is well on its way. Trish and Mark and their children should be moved in to the home in the Pleasant Oaks subdivision of Greensboro before Christmas. 

What makes this house a bit extra special is that they chose to make a showcase of the home so others right here in Greensboro, and elsewhere, could see the potential for affordable green suburban homes.  They setup a website at www.Greenspirationhome.com where visitors have the opportunity to share the owners’ journey as they make critical decisions regarding design, hvac systems, building materials, and more. The site also offers product information and demonstrations, on-site training for builders and contractors and notification of open houses.

Habitats building greener

Just as my back starts to recover from Saturday's work at a Habitat home in Durham, I'm delighted to read in the N&O an article about how charity built homes are getting greener.  The N&O article says that 80% of these low income homes built by charities like Habitat for Humanity are now equipped with energy saving features. See the full article here.

The home I was working on, is being built by Durham Habitat and sponsored by the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (ERUUF).  ERUUF member and green builder Tom O'Dwyer persuaded the Habitat team to build in a number of additional cost effective energy saving features and then encouraged several fellow members to cough up the extra $1200 - a paltry sum really for what was done. Tom's improvements to the design include increasing the overhangs, increased insulation to R60, radiant barrier roof deck and increased caulking of all joints. He also sealed all of the edges  of cabinetry wood components to minimize any off gassing.

And the really great news is that the Habitat team like the improvements so much that they're aiming to include them in future builds.

 

Chapel Hill Greeks Going Green

Ford Eubanks is out to green the Greek establishment. Of course the "Greeks" here are the Fraternities and Sororities who have houses dotted around the periphery of the campus. These houses don't enjoy the same level of loving care that many personal homes get because the residents are in constant flux and they have a lot of more urgent priorities than home maintenance. Most being older buildings are very inefficient to say the least. So Ford and several partners in the venture have set up a non-profit to tackle the challenge of making the Fraternity and Sorority houses greener.
Their first step was to contact an energy auditor, who as it happens was my friend Bill Klotz - which is how I came to hear about it.

The first round of audits have shown how much room there is for improvement, and came with a detailed list of suggested actions.

So far it's a pilot project focusing on houses in the local area. But Ford and his colleagues have national ambitions for the program. And already they're getting great feedback from national fraternity directors.

And once the initial audits and building improvements are made there's still more. They plan to create a online shop for Greek clients can purchase green and energy efficient products. And they'll provide ongoing training programs too, since as we all know, behaviors are essential to maintaining a green home.

This is a fantastic enviro-vision that I think shows great promise of reducing CO2 emissions and increasing efficiency in the short run. In the long run it's also a great way to instill an environmental consciousness in college students that will continue paying dividends.

Vanguard Homes participages in educational tour for Raleigh students

The VP of Construction for Vanguard Homes, Robert Smart, held an educational tour about green building for downtown Raleigh’s Exploris students.  The event was hosted at Blount Street Commons, a new community  under development downtown.

Mr. Smart taught students what green building is and why it's important. He also introduced a number of key green building terms such as energy efficiency, indoor air quality and water conservation.

This was all part of the Exploris Middle School Green Fair and included tours moderated by local companies which included Starbucks, Whole Foods and Progress Energy. Nearly 200 people attended the Green Fair to learn about Green Practices from displays produced by the students.

Read the full story on Triangle dBusiness News

Porto offers sustainable furniture

Emily Barrett and Michael Perry are people living their dream. Having worked for other home furnishing stores for years, in 2004 they struck out one their own to create something beautiful and eco-friendly too. Their first Porto store in Raleigh's North Hills shopping center is where they refined that vision selecting products that are uncompromising in quality of craftsmanship and original design. Since then, in 2007 they opened a second store in Chapel Hill's Eastgate shopping center which has just undergone a major refurbishment with the arrival of Trader Joe's.

Porto is more than a home furnishings store. Emily and Michael wanted it to be a part of the global community, and it is. They believe that their responsibilities go beyond the showroom doors, so Porto’s collections are designed and manufactured by companies who practice environmental and social responsibility. Porto is a founding member of the Sustainable Furniture Council, and so far the only store in the State to be acccredited by the organization.

They've also found that being green can save money. They estimate that the new store which is completely lit by compact fluorescent bulbs is saving them over $10,000 per year in energy costs.  So they're in the  process of replacing the bulbs in the North Hills shop too.

As a business, Porto also makes it a practice to give back to the community. The partners do that by sponsoring and participating in many charitable endeavors, including an annual fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity.

NC State now has the State's largest PV array

A new 75.6 kW system is now live at NC State University near the RBC Center, as was unveiled Tuesday at a ribbon cutting event. This makes it the largest privately financed array in the State - for now.

Richard Harkrader, this month's green hero and owner of Carolina Solar Energy, started the project back in 2004. His company now plans to build a series of further projects across the State. Plans include systems hosted by businesses, schools, shopping centers and government facilities, all at around 100 kW.

Speaking at the ribbon-cutting event, Harkrader said, “One of our goals with this project and our other solar projects across the state, is to show that solar power isn’t just for people in California and Nevada – it is feasible on a large scale right now, right here in North Carolina.”

He also said, “Photovoltaic solar technology has come a long way. There's no doubt solar power is becoming a viable investment in North Carolina, and will improve the larger projects we build.”

For the full press release click here.

Cherokee gets LEED Platinum for their Raleigh HQ

Cherokee Investment Partners are a local private company that specializes in cleaning up and developing real estate. They're committed to sustainable development and built a "mainstream green" home in Raleigh last year.

Now they've achieved the first LEED Platinum building in North Carolina for their own headquarters building. To do it they rehabilitated a former furniture warehouse.  Some of the key features of the building include a highly insulated, reflective roof to reduce heat gain, ENERGY STAR-certified office equipment and efficient lighting systems; water-saving faucets; waterless urinals;  zero- or low-VOC paints, adhesives, sealants, furniture and
carpeting.   The building includes showers and bike storage to encourage additional alternative transit options.

The urban office space retains 60 percent of the existing building interior, and when compared to traditional buildings it reduces water use by roughly 45 percent, energy use by 25 percent, and it provides 90 percent of occupants with natural light and views to the outdoors. In addition, the office workstations use 82 percent recycled content. 

See their full press release here.

Durham Solar Homes tour

I went round the homes on the Durham Solar Homes tour Saturday and enjoyed one in particular. It turns out to have been designed by Sophie Piesse a local Carrboro architect who specializes in green building. What struck me most was the elegance of the interior spaces and how well laid out everything was for a comfortable life. Then I started noticing how sustainable all of the materials are and the solar PV and the icynene spray foam insulation. The walls are made of Agriboard an 8" thick panel of wheatstraw sandwiched between sheets of OSB - a sort of SIP really. And the exterior finish is a natural hydraulic lime stucco - a wonderfully sustainable material.

It was also very inspiring to see the work of Greenfire Development who are renovating many buildings in downtown Durham including an old fire station and next door to it the pharmacy building. They're installing a deep well geothermal system to condition the space using three wells dug 1500 feet below the courtyard between the two buildings. In addition, they're practicing many good green building concepts like minimizing waste and recycling materials.

Unfortunately the tour had some issues with their literature and the driving directions. I found myself with a glossy brochure for the larger NC green building tour but which gave me no information relevant to the immediate Durham tour, plus several other sheets that I had to juggle to find my way around and a detailed set of directions from each stop to the next. I'd rather have less paper next time guys, and a map would be very nice indeed. Sometimes one wants to skip a stop or two and/or find one's own way with a more visual reference. Had I not had someone else with me in the car I wouldn't have been able to follow those meticulous directions.

Charlotte Energy Solutions

My latest "Green Hero" discovery is Charlotte Energy Solutions. Mark Englander, the owner, is a dedicated purveyor of environmentally sustainable alternatives for both homes and transport. 

For home energy, they offer solar hot water, solar photovoltaics (PV), tankless gas water heaters and corn stoves. 

As alternative transport they sell, Segways, Electric Scooters, and Straight Vegetable Oil conversions for diesel cars. They also have the only B100 Biodiesel filling station in the area. 

Mark started this business because he had been living a green lifestyle driving his own veg-oil powered car and heating his home with a corn stove. He finally realized that he needed to spread the word more aggressively so he opened the store which has been amazingly successful.

Local NC countertops made with New River aggregate

I've finally found a locally made sustainable counter top solution. The New River Concrete Countertops company makes beautiful counters in Jefferson NC using local gravel and sand which is collected from the regular low impact dredging of the local dams on the New River.

The company typically takes a template onsite then makes a mold in their shop to pour the slab from a mix that includes the gravel, sand and recycled materials such as fly ash and fly ash iron oxides. The slabs are ground down to expose the beauty of the aggregate. They can then be sealed with either a no-VOC sealer, that will need regular waxing or a low-VOC sealer which requires no maintanence.

The company do installations throughout NC and VA. They are the latest addition to my growing list of building heroes who do great, local, sustainable work bringing beauty and integrity to home building.

My Home Building Help LLC helps owners build their own sustainable homes

Bill Klotz found his mission in life, helping people to build their own homes. Best of all he's steering people toward sustainable, high-performance building that save owners money.  Bill maintains that it doesn't have to cost much more to build a high performance home. It can be done by following good building practices and paying attention to detail. His company, My Home Building Help, started helping self-builders achieve better results at the start of this year. They offer services from Building Science Plan Reviews for clients anywhere in the country through to a complete General Contractor Package that takes on the full responsibility of the build for a flat fee.  They'll even act as agent when the owner chooses to build with a contractor, and ensure the owner gets what he wants.

What makes Bill Klotz so right for this role? He's not only worked for one of the largest builders in the Country, but he worked with Advanced Energy, a cutting edge national construction consulting firm right here in Raleigh. There he learned about the latest developments in building science and helped builders diagnose and solve problems. And he developed methods to simplify the construction management process so anyone could do it.

Construction Resources exceeds Energy Star standards by 350%

Local builder Construction Resources, has built a home that has been independently rated at 350% above the Energy Star standards for energy efficiency. And no it hasn't been done with any fancy new technology, or at least not much. Basically it's just a solidly build home that has been sealed tight and insulated well with the addition of a solar hot water system.  Of course, it has a sealed crawl space.  Sealing it tight (and this house rated 178% better than Energy Star in the Blower Door test) is all about the details. They've caulked everything including the cabinetry and sub floor.

The walls which are simply framed with 2x6s are insulated for an R21 with fiberglass batts, but the attic has a whopping R-62 from cellulose. And another little detail, there's an R49 hatch cover for the attic stairs, where you'd otherwise have a great big heat loss.  Tech Shield sheathing also does a great deal to hold back the heat in the attic. 

So, according to the independent raters at Southern Energy Management, the home which is about 2500 square feet will cost about $25 per month for heating and cooling over the year. 

Construction Resources' Tom O'Dwyer has shown that attention to detail, good building practices and most of all just caring can do a lot to make homes super energy efficient. 

Chandler Design Build

"Green" doesn't work well enough to describe the homes Michael Chandler builds. I think "authentic" gets closer. Certainly his work is authentic in terms of expressing his character as well as the materials that go into the buildings. Things like soapstone fireplaces, shingle siding and gorgeous wood details throughout showcase the materials for their natural beauty. The designs are all very easy to love and easy to live in as a result of the time and care he and his wife put into understanding each client.

What most impresses me most is the build quality and the engineering. They've learned to build very tight and energy efficient homes that are generally 60% better than code standards. Of course, code should be simply unacceptable as a standard for any homeowner today, but this is a commendable achievement.

Michael is also very active in the National Association of Home Builders'  (NAHB) Green Building Initiative (GBI). As a caring thinking person, he wants to work for more improvements in building standards across the board. But as a lifestyle choice he limits his team to 4 homes per year. To reconcile that Michael takes a role as co-chair of the GBI educational committee, which gets him out talking to groups of builders who want to improve their practices.