With a consortium of prestigious and notable sponsors, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Professional Builder Magazine, and the National Association of Home Builders, the second annual Green Building Conference will be held on April 5-8 at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Denver, Colorado.

The first conference, held in August of 1999, was a rousing success. More than 400 attendees spent 2 ¹/₂ days with industry leaders, product manufacturers, building scientists and fellow builders exchanging views, experiences, and information on everything from smart growth to green mortgages and tax credits to finger-jointed studs, according to industry sources.

The consumer demand for resource-efficient construction is growing by leaps and bounds, and no one understands this better than new homebuilders themselves. Charlie Ruma, past president of the NAHB is quoted as saying, "The future of homebuilding is green building." What does "green" mean? It means anything that provides for our comfort and daily life that does not contribute to the depletion of our natural resources. It means lower operating costs, less maintenance, more comfort with healthier indoor environments, and the confidence of knowing we are doing all we can to protect Mother Nature while "visiting" earth. The Green Conference offers homebuilders a wealth of knowledge and information in high-quality educational events, products and systems, all geared to building better by building green.

The conference attracts owners, presidents, executive directors and principals of green persuasion throughout the U.S. and Canada to gather and compare notes, creating a giant "think-tank" of environmental building gurus. Outcomes from last year's conference included a pledge from Fannie Mae to create a green mortgage product that will provide a real financial incentive to both builders and the buyers of their resource-efficient homes. It also saw the formation of an NAHB sub-committee to address environmental design and construction and a Professional Builder Magazine spread on the conference itself.

One of the keynote speakers in 1999 was Steve Loken from the Center for Resourceful Building Technology. In his address, "Building Homes and Environmental Quality," Loken painted a broad picture about building and the environment. He covered the important elements affecting housing, materials, land and water, and stewardship. Based in Montana, Loken compared his state with what Colorado was forty or fifty years ago. He likened it to "the blind man touching the elephant," noting that wherever he touches, he will get a small piece of the entire, immense animal, taking into account the remoteness of it and its sparse population.

With Montana possessing the second lowest per capita income in the nation (second only to Hawaii), it has developed a deserved reputation for survivalism in one of its purest forms; necessity. It is not uncommon, historically speaking, for people to naturally use whatever they can to provide shelter, from straw bales houses to earthen shelters. Loken adds, "…when they nest they take materials that are indigenous and make it work," says Loken. This rich history of using, but revering natural building materials has bred a "sense of strength and security and solidness, important to the animal instinct that we all have," according to Loken.

Loken pointed out that ninety per cent of all houses built in the U.S. are built with wood, a strong and renewable source of building materials, forcing us to plant trees and maintain forests, but gradually reaping a lower quality wood as time goes on. As we mine our rich soils to extract its resources, we oftentimes leave nothing behind to "steward" and help replenish the supply. "Much of our economy in the Northern Rockies depends on primary 'extractive' industries . . . mining, logging . . as in Colorado. And it can be done well or it can be done badly," admits Loken. He goes on, "Part of the green building movement is recognizing just what is essential for building and what is not." It may be true that we are using far fewer materials to build now than we have in the past, making minimalists of us all, so to speak. With the role of better insulation, more energy efficient windows, and better framing methods, we are using other products that don't take as much of a toll on our natural resources, according to Loken.

The more we examine the green building movement, the more we realize how far we have come in saving natural resources. The steel industry brings us steel framing for homes, plastics can provide styrene and Styrofoam for walls (Loken refers to this as "engineered air"), cellulose can provide insulation, and the sun can fill up photovoltaic roof tiles, providing a natural and free source of electricity. Concrete and concrete aggregate are being used for so many building products, it would make our heads spins, and now adobe is used on million dollar homes in the southwestern United States. The amazing spect of green building is how it has come full circle, bringing us back to our frugal roots.

Green building by U.S. homebuilders can become one of the more inspiring trends in the 21st century. But is this concept really all that new? In Europe, as in other parts of the world where there are limited resources and sometimes a lack of space, humankind has had to use nature wisely to sustain life, to create sources of water, soil and energy. Natural underground springs still gurgle through ancient Roman aqueducts, supplying water to Rome's labyrinth of waterways, including the famous Trevi Fountain. The ancient Greek Minoan civilization used an elaborate series of slanted alabaster shafts to bring the sun into their three-storied palaces on the island of Crete.

It would seem that the future holds no limits as to what we can accomplish by using our "green" intellects before using our hammers in building the new homes of America.

Published: March 10, 2000

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.