Reasons to build Green!

Jim Hassi

Let me start out by saying that building Green is not the flavor of the month here at Cascade Joinery. We have been designing and building, energy and resource efficient homes since the company started almost 20 years ago. However, the market has changed, greener, better products are hitting the market every day, and it is easier than ever to build a high quality, Green home.

As the resident pragmatist here at the Joinery, I have one primary reason to share with you to consider building green:

Money

Building Green can save you money in at least 2 ways:

The first is actual cost of construction:

A well designed house that fits your lifestyle can save you hundreds of wasted square feet. Think about this: If you have an unnecessary hallway that is 20 feet long, you have added 70 square feet to your floor plan. No big deal - right? Well at a realistic construction cost of $175 sq/ft, that amounts to $12,250!

Building Green also means that you pay attention to making a home energy efficient. This of course translates into lower operating costs, but it also means that you can scale down the size of the mechanical systems used to heat and cool your home.

Construction waste is reduced - this results in lower costs involved in disposing of waste.

The second way to save money by building Green is your ongoing Operating costs:

A recent study showed that homeowners who were asked the most important reason to reduce energy consumption, 73% chose "to reduce my bills/control costs" and only 26% chose "to lessen my impact on the environment." Realistically, energy costs will only continue to rise and since you can lessen that impact - especially if you will be on a fixed income - you should.

Current alternative systems for generating heat and electricity have fairly long paybacks - but likely will become more affordable as time goes on. But a well built home that is very well insulated and very well sealed pays back the added cost very quickly. Insulation and air sealing is decidedly not very sexy or hip compared to photo voltaic energy, but cutting your heating and cooling costs is very appealing!

Let's not forget water as well - using less water costs you less - whether you pay a municipal water system, or run your own well - water costs money. Even here in the ‘Pacific North-Wet', city water bills can run into the $200 per month if you use more than the monthly baseline. We know that most major municipalities will begin to set a lower baseline and charge much more to consumers whose usage exceeds the baseline amount.

If you are building your dream house why would you not want to try to control your operating costs? The reality is that wasted resources are wasted money. So ask yourself - Why not build Green?