What is green?

Green buildings are located, designed, constructed and maintained to promote resource conservation and in turn, to help enhance the well-being of occupants. Green buildings use resources wisely, to help minimize negative impacts on occupants and on the environment by:

• Drawing on energy-efficient designs and materials built to last
• Using recycled or sustainable materials
• Helping improve indoor air quality
• Landscaping exteriors to conserve energy and water
• Providing a comfortable, easy-to-maintain, sustainable environment

In addition, green buildings often provide greater design flexibility, can help improve occupant productivity, and help reduce maintenance and replacement costs over the life of the building.

What is sustainable design?

Sustainable design seeks harmony with the environment as it balances human needs (as opposed to wants) with the carrying capacity of the natural and cultural environments. To achieve sustainable design, a variety of strategies are used during the design, construction and operation of building projects. Green building is one of those strategies used in the process to best utilize resources.

Essential elements in sustainable design include: optimizing the site potential for energy efficiency, water conservation, ease of use and security; using environmentally-friendly products, enhancing indoor air quality and simplifying maintenance to help reduce life cycle costs. Green is growing

According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), new homes today are twice as energy-efficient as they were 30 years ago, due to cutting-edge green building techniques and technologies available for new and remodeled homes. Nationwide, roughly 61,000 homes were built using local green building program guidelines from 1990-2004. In 2004 alone, more than 14,000 green homes were constructed.

With the green movement continually on the rise, there are green aspects to consider in every element of a newly constructed building or home. The LEED™ (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System® is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. Members of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) representing all segments of the building industry developed LEED and continue to contribute to its evolution.

According to the USGBC, LEED was created to:

• define “green building” by establishing a common standard of measurement
• promote integrated, whole-building design practices
• recognize environmental leadership in the building industry
• stimulate green competition
• raise consumer awareness of green building benefits
• transform the building market

LEED provides a complete framework for assessing building performance and meeting sustainability goals. Based on well-founded scientific standards, LEED emphasizes state of the art strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

Green guide

Listed below are recommendations on what to look for in environmentally-friendly products.

Green window and door guide

1. Manufacturer's commitment to environmental stewardship.

2. Energy efficiency - the building envelope is a key part of how a building will perform in relation to energy efficiency. When a building envelope has windows and doors, there are holes in that envelope that could compromise the energy efficiency. That's why window and door choices are critical, because high quality and energy efficient windows and doors should be used.

3. Wood windows with triple glazing and blinds between the glass are one option because they offer excellent U-Values and thermal properties of the wood.

4. Recycled content - evaluate the amount of recycled content used - this can be post-consumer or post-industrial.

5. Indoor air quality - the main issue with indoor air quality is VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), so at the very least products need to meet some type of requirements, such as Green Seal®.

6. Daylighting and views - daylighting and views are a key window property for green, because windows allow for natural daylighting which reduces or eliminates the need for artificial lighting saving on energy costs. A key component is to place windows and shading devices in a location that maximizes daylighting and minimizes heat gain. Views are maximized if all occupants have visibility to the outdoors. Studies show this contributes positively to both work environments and life improvement.

7. Increase ventilation effectiveness - operable windows can assist with this, if the building is going to be naturally ventilated to reduce the need for mechanical systems for fresh air flow.

8. Light pollution - lights can pollute the night sky and neighboring properties, including the interior lights from a building. The goal is to eliminate light trespass from the building.

9. Wood as a building material - utilizing renewable resources.

10. Certified wood - there are several wood certification systems available, the most well known being FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative). Most of the well-known certification systems are developed and used with the same key purpose in mind, which is to practice sustainable forestry. How they do this will vary.

This article was provided by Pella. Pella Impervia windows and patio doors, made of patented fiberglass composite materials, are proof that energy efficiency doesn't only come in the form of wood and doesn't apply only to new homes. Pella Impervia products support the green movement and contribute to LEED projects in several major categories. Find out more at Pella’s website .