If you look around the area at many homes under construction, you’ll note that builders are abandoning plans for upscale amenities and instead simply focusing on getting a house to market as quickly and cheaply as possible.  Some of these compromises are impacting builders of eco-friendly housing as the market now prioritizes price over energy efficiency. 

Against this backdrop of a housing market gone chaotic, the City of Portland’s Office of Sustainable Development held its sixth annual “Build it Green! Tour of Homes“.  This year’s tour showcased 21 projects that spanned the range from a floating home on Tomahawk Island to the Sabin Green cohousing plan to a carbon neutral home featuring ecoroofs all the way to the green condos at the John Ross building. 

While some projects could be seen as somewhat quixotic, an overarching theme of the tour was just how many of the technologies that seemed unreachable and exotic a few years ago are now part of the lexicon for consumers and builders alike.  Tankless water heaters, zoned radiant floors, low VOC paints are no longer only for “environmentalist wackos”. 

Utilizing the Northwest’s unique character traits is one way to maximize eco-friendly design.  To that end, rain catcher tanks to supply a home’s water needs, living-roof designs to curb sewer line runoff, and even the removal of paved asphalt driveways to reduce heat island effects are sprouting up in local neighborhoods.  Passive solar and geothermal energy solutions - once deemed irrelevant for this part of the country - are finding new life as efficiencies improve.

In terms of standards, a house can be classified as meeting Earth Advantage certification if energy use is 15% better than a conventionally built home.  A similar program primarily for use in commercial structures uses Leed certification at Silver, Gold and Platinum levels.  The recently issued Living Building challenge from the Cascadia Region Green Building Council calls for “Beyond Leed”  designs that are not just more energy efficient but actually have a positive impact on the local environment.  Let’s hope the recent downturn doesn’t slow down these innovations. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 11:25 pm and is filed under Economy, Energy Future, Environment, General, Livability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.