Recently I stumbled upon a book in my library that I bought a while ago with an intention to read immediately, but never accomplished until now.  The title says it all: “Good Green Homes: Creating Better Homes For a Healthier Planet” by Jennifer Roberts, with beautiful photography by Linda Svendsen.

This book is a great read for everyone wanting to find out what makes a home green. It explains the principles of green building in a way which I find easily understandable, and from now on I will use them to explain the concept to my design clients. I would also like to share them here on my blog.

So how do you approach the green building process in your own backyard? Here are the 7 paths to a good green home, according to the book’s author:

1. “Know where you are” – your surroundings play a very important role when trying to find a starting point for your green project.
2. “Size matters” – bigger isn’t always better when it comes to homes. The size of your living space should be dictated by your needs, not by the amount of stuff you own.
3. “You have the power” – take charge of how much and what kind of energy you use. Be smart: use natural heating and cooling, and find out where you’re wasting energy.
4. “Build for today and tomorrow” – plan for a well-built home that will accommodate to your changing needs, and will be tough enough to withstand for many generations.
5. “Clean living: protecting our air and water” – be aware of air and water pollutants, and know ways to protect your environment from them. Know how to conserve water indoors and outdoors.
6. “Build a better wall” – know the alternatives to conventional building methods and materials, and their advantages.
7. “Use the right stuff” – find out what questions to ask when selecting products to use in your home.

I encourage you to read this book, especially since it is beautifully illustrated with photographs to show the different shades of green building.

As the author says: ” The goal is not creating a perfect home, but creating a better home. Small steps and the right attitude can lead to big changes.” Couldn’t agree more!

Green construction includes a category of building materials called rapidly renewable materials, which have a  harvest cycle of 10 years or less. Building components that are able to regenerate in such a short time include bamboo, cork, wool, wheat and rice straw, and even sunflower seeds and sorghum stalks. Linoleum is also considered a rapidly renewable material, since it is made from linseed oil, cork dust and wood fiber.

To qualify for the LEED points in building certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, 2.5% of the total value of materials in a project needs to be rapidly renewable.

Some of the materials in the rapidly renewable category are less green than others. Not all meet other sustainability criteria, like local sourcing. Most of the bamboo flooring comes from China, and most linoleum from Europe. There are also concerns about forestry practices, the toxicity of binders, quality control and worker safety.

However, architects and interior designers have to regard not only environmental aspects, but also performance, durability and cleanability of specified materials. Let’s see how we can use them in our own homes to make our space not only healthier for ourselves, but also less burden on the environment.

Bamboo is a fast-growing grass used in flooring and furniture construction. You can choose between different colors, patterns (vertical and horizontal), even hand-scraped textures. Strand woven variety, great for high-traffic areas, is 1.5 times harder than red oak. Bamboo plywood and veneers have been adopted by furniture-making companies to manufacture casegoods (e.g. kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, countertops, etc.)

Cork is impermeable, fire retardant, lightweight and flexible. It’s main use is in flooring. I love to specify cork floors in kids rooms, where the material provides warmth and softness underfoot, and the texture hides any surface dents and scratches.

Wool has been use in interiors since prehistoric times. Wool carpets are more durable than synthetic, they’re hypoallergenic, and have a natural water-repellent coating -  a fat called lanolin. Wool is fire-resistant and absorbs environmental contaminants. It also regulates interior humidity levels thanks to it’s hygroscopic nature. Wool is also used in construction as a wall insulation.