Rick Reynolds of Bensonwood takes a stab at the question.
We have tried to answer this question so many times on TreeHugger. We have read Lance Hosey’s book on the subject, The Shape of Green. We have studied Steve Mouzon’s Original Green but still never have come up with a great definition. Now Rick Reynolds of Bensonwood, the big timber frame company, has a shot at it.
He illustrates his post with some of his monster second homes in the countryside, so this is, to some degree, a “do as I say, not as I do” list; but the company is also responsible for the Unity Homes prefabs that we love, so he gets a pass on that. And he starts off so well:
He then starts with his main points, which are very similar to Steve Mouzon’s principles from the Original Green, but in many ways go further. Some of his points:
In Original Green, this was called lovability, because it is so hard to define beauty, but whether one loves something is a more straightforward emotional reaction.
So much of what we build is cheap and disposable, sticks, styrofoam, and stucco.
This is Mouzon’s Flexible, but Bensonwood has taken it so much further with their adoption of Open Building, which recognizes that different systems have different life spans and a house should be designed to adapt. I had to rip my house apart to get rid of knob and tube wiring; I might have to rip it apart again to go DC some day. In open building, all those wires are accessible. Almost nobody does this and everybody should.
Healthy, quiet, light-filled, interiors: The Next Big Thing is the healthy home (we have been running a series on it) and studies have shown how bad noise actually is for our health.
Draft-free thermal comfort is another item that people are just beginning to understand – how being comfortable is far more than just adjusting a thermostat.
Low Load Thermal Performance and Low Operational Costs are related.
Rick goes on to discuss “cultural sustainability”: “If a house is historically significant, its cultural importance may trump its sustainability.” This is crazy talk for a builder, words that even historic preservationists like me have trouble convincing people of. He concludes:
This is a sophisticated look at a complex subject. One might add a few more points about location and density, but it is a great place to start in any discussion of building the greenest home. Read the whole thing at Bensonwood.
