“Built Green” is pretty exciting stuff especially if you read my last post in which I talked about taking a 100 trees to build one 2000 square foot home. I keep reading about all these great things that will help us all to have a smaller “footprint” on earth and I will continue to add these articles to my blog. There are lots of suggestions made in this article from Realtor Magazine. Some materials presented here are new on the market and some have been around for a while. Some of these items can cost more initially to install, but often will last a lot longer and cost less to use. The added benefit is that these materials will have less of an impact on the environment.

This article mentions copper roofs. I was not aware that copper roofs can last a century! (I know most of you are saying, who cares, I am not going to live that long.) Copper roofs can take all kinds of weather and the material can be recycled. Typical composition roofs have a life span of 20, 30 or 40 years.

Low-E glass, something that has been available for a while, is most cost effective when the winds are blowing in the winter or the summer sun streams in. These windows can have a dramatic impact on cooling and heating bills.

Induction cook tops channel the heat to directly to the pots and therefore, does not heat up a large part of a stove top surface. This is more efficient but also has the added benefit of minimizing burning anyone who accidentally touches the cook top.

Reclaimed wood is becoming increasingly popular in furniture and home building design. I mentioned in my post about The Seattle Street of Dreams that recycled paper was used in one home for counter top. Bamboo and reclaimed wood are also being used for counter top surfaces.

Timber construction is also becoming more popular, think large beam construction. The cost to install timbers is far less than it is to use finished boards from a tree.

Check out the full article to find out about more material and fixtures that are environmentally friendly.

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How many trees does it take to build a home? I had no idea that if you build a 2000 square foot home, it would require 26,700 board feet! This number just blew me away. One 20 inch, 42 foot long tree will produce about 260 board feet, a small fraction of what you would need to build one home. So if you are building this 2000 square foot home, it will take 102 trees.

This explains why you see these swaths of trees clear cut on the mountains around here when you take off on an airplane. Take a look the next time you take off from SeaTac. Many of these trees are going to be used to build homes all over the world.

A recent article in the Seattle Times talked about how much wood, concrete, glass, etc. it takes to build a standard home. It amazes me that we have not run out of natural materials thus far. It certainly puts building green way up there for consideration.

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