What is Green?

At last..the moment we’ve been waiting for.”Green” is becoming a household word. Walk through most bookstores or scan the magazine and newspaper racks and you can pick up the beautiful “Green Interiors” and “Natural Home” magazines, dozens of books on the topic.and even check out a story about local builders in Green Bay touting the virtues of green-built homes.

But time and time again I’m still asked, “Exactly what is a green/sustainable home? The two terms are interchangeable.) What makes it different? How can it be better than what we now have?”

Let’s start by saying what it is not. It is not a fad. It is not a trendy new style of architecture. It is not something which should cause homeowners to gut their houses, pitch everything out and buy new (naturally) green products so they feel they’re doing something beneficial for the environment.

Green architecture is a well-reasoned and long-seasoned approach to constructing homes and other buildings in a manner that, at best, enhances our built environment and, at the least, causes less damage to our environment than do standard practices.

Green, or sustainable, architecture is a blending of three components: design, materials, and systems. This article is the first in a series which will describe these components in detail. The photos accompanying this first article show elements of sustainable design. Forthcoming articles will define each of these items in detail, and explain how and why they were used.