Page 40 - Green Builder September-October 2018 Issue

The Align Project:

Align Your Finances

How can we design and build homes that work

for people, instead of the other way around?

BY JULIET GRABLE

HEN IT COMES TO BUYING,
building and remodeling
houses, we’ve been lulled into
going for the lowest bid or
the least cost per square foot.
But anything cheap is bound
W to have long-term costs. Take
plastic goods—most don’t last, and they come with a
steep price tag to the environment.
The same could be said for the materials and systems
in our homes—pay me now, or pay me later.
“Looking at lowest upfront cost only is an antiquated
approach that is no longer applicable and serves no
one,” says Sara Gutterman, Green Builder® Media CEO.
“We have to start thinking about full cost, or lifecycle
cost, to properly understand the value of our homes
and buildings.”
To be sure, green building programs such as LEED
reward holistic thinking. But how can the industry
start incentivizing long-term value—which arguably
is better for all of us? The burgeoning eld of resilient Getting ‘Aligned.’ The Align Project demonstration house is
design may point the way. currently under construction in Kasita’s factory in Austin, Texas.

38 GREEN BUILDER September/October 2018 www.greenbuildermedia.com

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