Green building rules the roost

Green building is no longer any new concept but to a section of builders and also real estate developers it is becoming the best ploy to avert the negative aspects of the downturn and also the sordid market. Well, several organizations in the realm of the United States of America are coming to the forefront in this regard and North Coast Builders Exchange among them deserves a special mention due to its initiatives. North Coast Builders Exchange is a member-operated, not-for-profit association serving the Construction Industry in the California North Coast area (for the most part Sonoma, Mendocino, and Lake Counties).

Nowadays the North Coast Builders Exchange is engaged in the planning of a green-building education center and it seems that it could be equipped by mid-summer. What are the present activities of the organization? The center, as has been learnt, is found to dwell in 1,400 square feet in the group’s Santa Rosa offices with several booths. Reason? North Coast Builders Exchange is determined to show how green-building concepts are interconnected. What are the categories for the booths then? Well, they do include energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor air quality, low-water landscaping, carbon footprint reduction and “smart” land-use planning.

However the main focus would be on education instead of mere promotion of products. All these have come to the knowledge thanks to initiative of Warren Brown who also said, “What we’re trying to avoid is making it look like a trade show.” He is the Chairman of the exchange’s Green Building Committee and also an esteemed Graton-based solar-power specialist, general and electrical contractor. In addition, apart from the exchange’s 1,800 members, the center may educate public and also students.

Speaking on this, Doug Hilberman, president of Axia Architects of Santa Rosa and past president of the AIA chapter stated, “It would be a set of displays for best management practices and methods for interpreting LEED and Build It Green” “As those two models affect remodels and existing building, we will have more of the public unfamiliar with those programs and will want to find out how to figure those line items into systems and materials.”