Page 4 - Green Builder Sept-Oct 2016

EDITOR’S NOTE By Matt Power
Editor-in-Chief
The Inside Scoop

Will the Other Bill McKibbens

Please Stand Up?

Its time for everyday climate heroes in the building industry to lead by example.
WHY IS THERE only one Bill
McKibben? If you’re holding which products and materials require the
a conference on saving the biggest CO2 footprint over their lifespan.
world, who comes to mind
What if every builder or remodeler radically
changed just one process or material, and

as a keynote speaker? Bill made it a standard for every new project? It’s

McKibben. If you wrote a book about living ridiculously easy to be “radical,” in the building

more simply, who will sing its praises on the industry, because you’re up against so many

back cover? Bill McKibben. status quo competitors. Switch to any one of

You might start to think that Bill McKibben these approaches, and you instantly become

the only person on Earth who has anything more “McKibben-like.”

wise, or prescient, or quotable to say about Install frost-protected shallow foundations.

saving ourselves from ourselves. That’s not This saves 7 or 8 cubic yards of concrete over

true, of course. a full basement foundation, a major source of

Thousands of less well-known people work CO2 pollution (due to cement).

on environmental issues every day—from water conservation to Avoid synthetic carpets and pads. Not only do these pollute

renewables. Most of us haven’t put as much skin in the game as Bill, indoor air, they’re one of the highest embodied energy materials in

of course, with his willingness to often take the unpopular views that any home. What’s worse, they need frequent replacement.

we all need to hear. Sure, we recycle and install CFL lightbulbs—the Design exteriors for gardens and orchards instead of lawns.

easy stuff. But when it comes to choices that really matter in terms You’ll be setting the stage for a lifetime of pesticide-free landscaping

of our overall resource impact, we’re stubborn. We still fly and drive with no combustion engine pollution every weekend.

too much, eat meat and have too many kids—and resist any effort Create a multi-family product for compact, high-efficiency studio

to restrict those activities. apartments in urban areas desperate for affordable housing.

Let’s leave those individual choices for now, and talk about Build net zero, and install mini-split or geothermal heating with

professional decisions. Thanks to building science, we now know solar PV power.

That last item might sound a little ahead of its time, but last week, I

interviewed Gene Myers with Thrive Home Builders in Denver. I asked

Myers about the viability of powering mini-split heat pumps with

solar arrays. In effect, this would create a zero-impact HVAC solution.

“Oh, we’ve been installing those on all of our new homes for the

past year,” Myers says. “More than 200 homes so far.” Thrive homes

average a HERS score of 0 for Zero Energy Homes, 29 for single

family homes and 53 for rowhomes—up to 100 percent less energy

use than a typical home of the same size.

CREDIT: BORA CHUNG Now there’s a green building hero that could give Bill McKibben

some much-deserved time off. GB

Leading the way. Bill McKibben is a journalist and environmentalist
who has led a number of campaigns to protect the environment.

2 GREEN BUILDER September/October 2016 www.greenbuildermedia.com