Finding your path to green

As you begin to learn about the process of building or renovating green, you will quickly discover that you can't get there by youself. You are going to need some guidance and some expertise. A way to sort out the the costs and benefits of each green strategy and product. And a way to measure how green your final product may or may not be. This means that you'll probably be looking for a green building program to help you along. The choices can be daunting. I hear that there are over 75 in use in the country today. Some of the ones available in my area of the Southeast are LEEDS for homes, offerings from NAHB green, Earthcraft, Enviornments for Living, Energy Star, and others. Depending on your location and desires, one of these programs or others may be right for you. Most of the national programs have modifications to conform with the climate in your area. (A home in the northwest is subject to a different enviornment than one constructed in the southeast.) I chose the NAHB program from the National Association of Homebuilders, since I'm a member, that's what our local council was leaning toward, I could easily be trained, and could easily understand this one. It builds a great green home for sure, but I don't want to detract from the others, either. I used the Green Building Guidelines, that is now being replaced by the Green Building Standards, which has recently been ANSI certified. You need a third party rated program though, that means the testing and scoring is done by an independent third party. Locally our program uses HERS raters that regulate the Energy Star program and others. I'll get into rater duties and stuff like that later, but it's great to have a guy on the team that can accurately predict the consequences of your energy and green choices befor you make them. I suggest that you look into what programs are available in your area and see if one will do the job for you.