NeoCon, the largest trade show of its kind in North America with 700 showrooms and exhibits to explore, wrapped up a couple of days ago in Chicago. The show featured some great sustainable design solutions, and Inhabitat has roundup of some of the highlights. Check out the best of NeoCon’s green offerings below.

Wool Clouds designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Kvadrat, available in North America through Haworth.

3Form Gecko tiles are applied with water and give a bright pop of color, as well as privacy, to existing glass installations.

Vienta Wall Tiles by Arktura are durable enough for use both inside and outside.

What do you think of these eco-friendly design innovations? How important is sustainable design to you? At Trilogy Partners, we build custom homes with an eye to sustainability as well as style. Contact us today and let us help you go green!

images via Inhabitat

Preserved historic structures line main street Breckenridge giving the town much of its charm.

Much to the consternation of developers and redevelopment agencies intent on demolishing historic buildings and constructing new ones, these days, in the name of going green, preservationists are making the case that “the greenest building is the one already built.”

“When we first started working on sustainability issues and tried to get people thinking about the environmental value of reusing buildings, rather than tearing them down and building new ones, we were greeted with arched eyebrows and polite nodding heads,” explains Patrice Frey, director of sustainability research for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “That’s changing now.”

“This whole idea that reusing existing resources — especially historic buildings — is the ultimate in recycling is beginning to get some traction,” agrees Donovan Rypkema, one of America’s most prominent and outspoken preservationists, and author of the classic book in the field, The Economics of Historic Preservation: A Community Leader’s Guide.

Helping historic preservationists present their case are new studies that calculate what is lost — in measurable environmental terms — when we tear buildings down and replace them with new ones. Plenty of studies have demonstrated the merits of constructing new green buildings, but until recently, there’s been relatively little data available on the economic and environmental benefits of building reuse. Some of the latest reports calculate both the enormous amount of energy and materials already locked into buildings (embodied energy), and the significant carbon emissions they represent.

Embodied energy is the energy consumed by all of the processes associated with the construction of a building, from the acquisition of natural resources to product delivery. This includes the mining and manufacturing of materials and equipment, plus their transport. A discussion of embodied energy first arose during America’s energy crisis in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Embodied-energy researchers developed a handy calculation: By entering a building’s size and type (residential, commercial, hospital, etc.), it was easy to do the math and come up with a quick estimate of the amount of energy saved by preserving a building.  Embodied-energy calculations had little influence on the old-versus-new building debate, though because it was believed that the embodied energy content of a building was rather small compared to the energy used in operating the building over its life. Most conservation efforts were, therefore, put into reducing operating energy by improving the energy efficiency of the structure

Nowadays, it’s accepted that embodied energy can be the equivalent of many years of operational energy, and that new construction requires enormous expenditures of energy and materials. A recent study by the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that 30 to 40 percent of natural-resource extraction every year goes to the building industry.

Meanwhile, to the delight of preservationists, old buildings have been adjudged to be surprisingly energy efficient. U.S. Department of Energy research on the energy performance of existing buildings ascertained that commercial buildings constructed before 1920 use less energy per square foot than buildings from any other period of time except after 2000. Older buildings, it seems, were constructed with high thermal mass, passive heating and cooling. And, obviously, were built to last.
Some builders acknowledge that historic commercial buildings use less energy than buildings of more recent vintage but insist the exact opposite is true of homes — the older the home, the worse the energy consumption is likely to be. Yes, but historic preservationists counter that recent studies show older homes can be remodeled and upgraded to meet energy standards at less cost — and at less cost to the environment — than tearing down and building new ones. That was the conclusion from a study in England by the Building and Social Housing Foundation and another in Scotland commissioned by Historic Scotland. Both studies also looked at the carbon impacts of building new homes compared to retrofitting old ones. The BSHF study commissioned by the Empty Homes Agency found it could take as long as 35 to 50 years for a new green home to recover the carbon expended during the construction process, while the Historic Scotland estimate was 15 to 20 years.
“The idea that even the most energy-efficient new house could require a minimum of 15 years to recover carbon ought to be reason enough to give us pause,” says Frey, “and take a second look at retrofitting our existing housing stock.”

Preservationists admit there is still some fuzziness in how exactly embodied energy and carbon emissions are measured. Noting that well over 40 percent of the nation’s carbon emissions come from construction and operation of buildings, The National Trust for Historic Preservation launched its Preservation Green Lab in Seattle to conduct further research. “The goal of research at Green Lab,” says Frey, “is to develop tools and resources to enable policymakers and decision-makers to get needed residential and commercial growth and at the same time protect what is already there.” (Run your dwelling through their embodied energy calculator here.) Most everyone, though, remains resistant to reusing and retrofitting buildings. Architects like to start from scratch, developers don’t want the hassles of rehabbing existing buildings, and new construction is a mainstay of the U.S. economy.

“The most unenlightened in this regard are the traditional environmental advocates and the U.S. Green Building Council and their LEED certification,” Rypkema jabs. “If it isn’t about a waterless toilet, solar panels or saving the rain forest, those groups don’t think it’s about the environment.” As Rypkema sees it, the environment and historic preservation have one thing in common: to understand their importance to society, you have to think long term. But in his experience, “The myopically short-term perspective of elected officials means they focus on the next election, not the next generation. “Fortunately, much policy on the national, state and local levels is effectively set by boards, commissions and public employees. With the right set of arguments, they are persuadable.”

We specialize in sustainable building at Trilogy Partners, and these days there are so many ways to create a completely custom home that is beautiful, functional, and eco-friendly. We encourage our clients to embrace sustainable design, and this year we are proud to build Breckinridge, Colorado’s first Zero Net Energy home! If you want to conserve energy and help the planet, check out these energy-saving tips from The Daily Green.

• Water heaters are usually set to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, but most households don’t need to use that much steam. By turning your water heater down to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, you can save from 6-10% on your energy bill.
• Storm doors and windows can increase the energy efficiency of your home by 45%.
• Don’t pay for what you don’t use. In most households, 50-70% of energy expenditures go to heating and cooling, so when you leave the house, turn the thermostat up in the summer and down in the winter.
• Make sure your home is well insulated. There are federal tax credits available for installing highly efficient insulation.
• Choose a green building professional with experience in designing sustainable, energy-efficient homes.

If you are looking for a custom design-build firm to help you create a sustainable home, contact Trilogy Partners today!

photo via Flickr

From a distance, the new building at Lake Mohave’s Cotton wood Cove Marina looks like any other office building except that a dock leads to its front door instead of a sidewalk.But a closer look reveals that this 2,000-square-foot marina operations facility is unlike any other in the world.

In fact, according to the National Park Service and Forever Resorts, which teamed up on the project, the building is the first floating one in the world to be registered for a gold certification under LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), the international rating system created by the U.S. Green Building Council.

After a year in construction, the $660,000, eco-friendly building, which floats in the marina 13 miles east of Searchlight, was dedicated Monday.

“It was a perfect opportunity to do something monumental,” said Rod Taylor, regional vice president for Forever Resorts, concessionaire at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, which includes Lake Mohave.

What makes the building so friendly to the environment?

For starters, the decking around it is made from a composite of rice hulls and recycled plastic. The sturdy rice-hull boards come from Arkansas, where the hulls were being disposed in landfills as a waste product.

And, instead of stucco, the exterior walls consist of a waterproof, liquid paste derived from ground-up, recycled tires. The paste, an excellent insulator, was applied to a fiberglass mesh that held it in place while it dried.

“It’s like wrapping the whole building in Saran Wrap. It doesn’t crack, and you don’t have to paint it,” said Richard Walker of Errth Flex, the company that produced the material, which is expected to stay intact for at least 50 years.

Builder Ken Couverley of Covey Designs said the construction task was unlike any he has experienced because it took place on water.

“We had our challenges,” he said, noting that saws had to be equipped with vacuums to keep sawdust out of the lake.

And, all the materials had to be trucked to the lake’s edge, put on a barge and hauled over to a stage of Styrofoam floats capable of carrying the building’s weight, 220,000 pounds.

He said the office floor is a plywoodlike material called Nyloboard that is made from recycled carpet remnants with a polyurethane skin.

Joe Piedimonte, corporate controller for Ausonio Inc., a Castroville, Calif., company that coordinated the environmental rating requirements, said the building will be equipped with photovoltaics for solar power.

Combined with special lighting features and windows that allow natural light to enter work areas, the building will have a 40 percent savings in energy use, he said.

Designed by Michael Carlson, of Carlson Studio Architecture, the building uses nonpotable lake water to flush toilets. The waste is collected in a septic tank and pumped to a land-based leachate field.

National Park Service spokesman Andrew Munoz said the idea to build an eco-friendly building for marina visitors came in the aftermath of a windstorm a few years ago that destroyed the previous office and much of the marina.

The project was launched with funding from insurance money and a percentage of profits that Forever Resorts had put in a capital improvement fund.

“We said, ‘Why don’t we be on the cutting edge to make this as environmentally friendly as possible and set the example,’ ” Munoz said.

Lake Mead National Recreation Area Superintendent Bill Dickinson said the new office has set the standard for eco-friendly floating buildings. “There’s no better place than in a national park to do that.

“It was visionary team made up of private industry and government led by our partner Forever Resorts that transformed this idea into action,” he said in a statement.

Source: LVRJ.com

Consumer Reports has created a guide to a greener kitchen. For example, you can find appliances like refrigerators, ranges and dishwashers that use less energy. Energy-efficient lighting is also a hot topic, as CFLs and LEDs edge out the old energy-hogging incandescents.

Many paints on the market now have lower or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which have been linked to respiratory problems. Some materials used for countertops, flooring and cabinets can also contain unhealthy chemicals that homeowners may want to avoid. Options include materials with recycled content or that comes from nearby, which limits the amount of resources consumed.

Source:  ConsumerReports.org

The recent British Council conference, Buildings of Today and Tomorrow’s Reality, gave us a few useful tips when designing and building energy-efficient, sustainable buildings. Here are 23 things to do when designing green buildings…

Did you know that 72 percent of total electricity, 39 percent of total energy and 14 percent of total water consumption take place in buildings? The buildings we live in and work in are also responsible for 28 percent of the CO2 emissions and 30 percent of total waste.

That’s why green buildings are becoming the new trend for a greener, sustainable and energy-efficient world. The recent conference “Buildings of Today and Tomorrow’s Reality,” held by the British Council and the Ministry of Public Works and Settlements’ General Directorate of Construction Affairs, showed us that there are more than a few ways to save energy when designing your green building.

Experts, architects and designers shared a few hints for green buildings. Make sure to use the following:

1. Spectrally-selective glasses,
2. Light pipes for lighting,
3. R410 gas, one of the most environment friendly coolants, as coolant for water,
4. Floor heating for wet areas,
5. CO2 sensors to check the return air in air conditioning,
6. Self-insulated polyurethane ducts to eliminate leakage and for assuring hygienic conditions,
7. Solar panels on roofs for electricity,
8. Wind turbines for extra electricity,
9. Solar collectors for hot water supply,
10. Ground source heat pump for getting maximum use of the constant soil temperature underground for hot water in winter and cold water in summer,
11. Frequency control in pumps and fans for minimising energy,
12. Daylight tubes for transferring outside daylight to interior spaces,
13. Energy analysers for monitoring total power consumption,
14. Waterless urinals,
15. Vegetation native to the area with minimum water requirement when landscaping,
16. Thermal insulation on the roof and the walls for minimising heat gain and loss,
17. Triple-glazing of the windows for heat loss and external noise reduction,
18. Ice storage during the night when the electricity cost is the lowest to be used during the day for cooling,
19. Multi-sensors sensitive to daylight and motion for the control of lighting switches,
20. A time-based programme for the lighting system,
21. A second piping system for the reuse of grey water for toilets,
22. Drip irrigation system with the collection of rainwater, and
23. Heat stored in concrete and heat from computers for air conditioning

Source: britishcouncilblogs.org

Water conservation has become an important part of sustainable living.

A growing concern for sustainable construction is water conservation. For many years, reducing power consumption has been a major focus of sustainable living, and while it is important, our dwindling water supply has slowly made green building exceedingly blue.

New construction specifications should incorporate water efficiency and conservation to reduce the impact on our water tables. The easiest way to conserve water usage is to install ultra-low flow fixtures wherever possible; your water consumption will decrease while leaving your quality of life virtually unchanged.

Proper landscaping makes a dramatic impact on water efficiency as well. Native plants reduce the need for regular watering since they have already adapted to the climate’s average rainfall. Scheduling a controlled irrigation early in the morning or after dusk will also reduce the amount of water wasted by evaporation.

To construct your own sustainable designed home in the Colorado Mountain region, contact Trilogy Partners today.

Biking Lake Dillon June 3 2011

After being away for several weeks visiting friends, getting reacquainted with my mountain bike, and blogging from the road, I have returned to Summit County. My timing was paired to coincide with the return of real warmth after a long and snowy winter. The mountains are still covered with white, but the rivers and streams are bursting with melt water delighting the rafters and kayakers. Today there isn’t a could in the sky and the temperature is destined for about 70 degrees. And so the summer will flow here, as things go from white to green. For the next three months, the weather will perfect joy. So if you are thinking of a summer vacation destination, there’s plenty up here that we’d love to share with you. Clean air, sunshine, and perfect temperatures are only the beginning. For more information visit the Breckenridge Resort Chamber or the Town of Breckenridge website.