Going 'green': function and form key to new home construction with environment and energy savings in forefront.

• Author: Maynard Barbara
• Position: BUILDING ALASKA

Fairbanks builder Mike Musick started preaching about "green" building before anyone had coined the phrase.

"Since the mid-1970s, I've been building as green as I could; I just didn't call it green," he said.

Through the years, he has worked with the Cooperative Extension service in Fairbanks, the Alaska Craftsman Home program, the Alaska Health House, the Alaska Building Science Network and the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, all in the interest of developing and teaching better building techniques.

Thus, Musick is a natural to bring a new program to Alaska. Under his leadership, the Interior Alaska Building Association has become one of 15 homebuilders associations nationwide to promote a Green Building Initiative. The program enables builders to tap a growing market by certifying green-built homes.

DEFINING GREEN

The first challenge in certifying a house as green is defining the term.

"There are a lot of misconceptions about this new green building," said homebuilder Thorsten Chlupp, who owns REINA Alaska and helped Musick develop the local Green Building Initiative. "It's not just about energy and it's not just about having paint that doesn't have any chemicals that cause trouble." Instead, green building is much more comprehensive. "Green building starts from the beginning, from the planning phase," he said. "It's a whole building process."

As green builders design a house, they think about both the indoor and outdoor environment. Thus, green building embraces everything from water and energy efficiency to thoughtful site design to adequate ventilation to low toxicity in paints and glues.

To help builders put all the pieces together, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) developed a set of guidelines for green building. Points are awarded for incorporating various elements from seven categories: lot design, preparation and development; resource efficiency; energy efficiency; water efficiency; indoor environmental quality; operation, maintenance and homeowner education; and global impact. Houses that earn a minimum number of points are certified bronze. Extra-green houses can earn a higher level of silver or gold certification.

The national guidelines provide a starting point for local Green Building Initiatives, who can modify the point system to suit local conditions. For instance, the Interior Alaska Green Building Initiative awards extra points for using materials produced within 500 miles. The Alaska guidelines...