What is Green Building? Ask a dozen people and you'll get a dozen different answers! Some people will tell you that a house MUST contain a certain feature to be green; others will say that a house MUST NOT contain a certain feature to be called green. The reality is that "Green Building" is a concept in motion. There are many components that factor into this thinking. We like to think of green building as High Performance Building or what we call The Right House.

Green building is a mind set, not just a collection of recycled products that you stick in a home. It starts with the site layout and includes almost every phase and element in the home's design, construction and finishes. It’s an integrated approach and careful thought must be given to the home as a "system". As architects and builders, we have an obligation to design and build responsible homes. A 2000 study by the International Interior Designers Association showed that while 83% of designers believe they have a moral obligation to offer sustainable solutions to clients, only 37% do. We believe that we are in that 37%.

“Each snowflake in the avalanche pleads not guilty.” Stanislaw J. Lec

The Right House should be durable, useful and beautiful. Absent any one of these elements and the structure fails to meet its intended use. These practices, along with the responsible use of the earth's finite resources, are the core beliefs of how Lone Star Custom Homes designs and builds.

THE PRINCIPLES OF GREEN  Optimize site potential  Minimize energy use and use renewable energy strategies  Conserve and protect water  Use environmentally preferable products  Enhance indoor environmental quality  Optimize operations and maintenance practices

THE HISTORY OF GREEN One might be tempted to believe that “green building” is a relatively new concept. It’s the hot button on everyone’s agenda. There has hardly been a single mainstream magazine in the past year that has not had a cover story dedicated to green issues. Even the 2007 Oscar Awards was “green”; although we’re not sure just what they meant. " The solution of every problem is contained within itself. Its plan, form and character are determined by the nature of the site, the nature of the materials used, the nature of the system using them, the nature of the life concerned and the purpose of the building itself.” Frank Lloyd Wright

In reality, this view of design and architecture has been in play since the early Roman architect Marcos Vitruvius in 50 B.C. Vitruvius is considered to be the father of architecture and his writings De Architectura are the basis of modern day design. Vitruvius’ sense of scale and proportion led to the Greek’s creation of the three orders: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian and later influenced Leonardo da Vinci to paint “The Vitruvian Man”. THE FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN One of the biggest misconceptions that people have about green building is that it costs more. That’s not entirely true. One can have a reasonably green home for as little 1 to 2% over a standard home that is built to code. Remember, a home “built to code” is the poorest that a home can be built legally!   Fiberglass - "Why would you use the same material to insulate your home as you use to filter the air in your furnace?"

A homeowner needs to consider the lifecycle costs of a product rather than the up-front costs. The costs incurred in building The Right House are not simply the dollars paid for construction. You have to factor in the often dramatic savings in monthly energy costs, tax credits, lowered insurance costs, increased resale value and, of course your biggest return, the increased comfort and improved health that The Right House can provide.

COMFORTS Many design and technical features based on green building practices not only provide cost savings and a healthy feeling of “doing the right thing” but also provide for creatures comforts that are beyond costs. For example, extended overhangs above west facing windows reduce solar gain, thereby eliminating hot spots in individual rooms. Green houses are cleaner. A well designed climate control system that correctly balances the home’s air pressure helps prevent the entry of pollen, dust and other contaminants, making the house not only healthier to live in, but easier to keep clean; central vacuum systems play a key role with this. Ductwork that is air-tight by thoroughly sealing all joints with special non-toxic mastic is critical. Geo-thermal heating replaces gas fired furnaces that produce fumes and dust debris that is then blown throughout the house. Energy Recovery Ventilation systems, combined with ultra tight wall construction, exchange indoor air and its impurities with fresh outdoor air on a regular basis. To help mitigate the harmful effects of VOCs and other harmful chemicals, we utilize an organic plaster from American Clay Plaster. This product has numerous properties that contribute to an overall improvement in your indoor air quality. The health benefits of these and other systems promote better health, reduced doctor visits and lower medical costs. This is just another of the many advantages of green design and construction.

NO LIMIT ON DESIGN When you mention green design to people, they almost always think that the home must be some kind of radical design using mud bricks or old tires! In reality a well designed high performance home can be any architectural design -- Indiana farmhouse, Southern Colonial Plantation or Spanish Revival; your design choices are limitless. The proposed COR building in Miami offers a wonderful example of hi-tech architecture while combining both residential and commercial space using state-of-the-art green building technologies. Good design understands that for anything to be truly beautiful, that it must possess SIMPLICITY and REPOSE. Architecture, like any other art, must not fall victim to fashion and trends but must maintain its course. The elements of good design are to follow nature’s example and have the form and function be one and the same. The arrangement of the design must be such that removing any one piece would destroy the intended composition. The green components in our homes are rarely noticed and usually only seen when you proudly produce your utility bills or direct your friends and neighbors down to the mechanical room to show off your state-of-the-art technologies.

leadership in energy and environmental design The LEED Green Building Rating System™ is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives builders and owners the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.

GREEN HOMES ARE HEALTHIER HOMES Asthma is the leading chronic illness in children today. Since we spend nearly 85% of our time indoors, it seems only reasonable that this environment -- our refuge from the world -- should be safe, comfortable and conducive to good health. Consider the toxins that are introduced into the average home during and after construction. Phenol-formaldehyde out-gassing from plywood. Paints with VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) are known Carcinogens and are directly related to asthma cases in children. Vinyl made from PVC is toxic at every stage of its lifecycle and the extraction, manufacture, installation and use of the material gives off proven and known carcinogens, including mercury. Carpet is typically made from synthetic, oil-based materials. These are toxic and out-gas harmful chemicals. Carpet requires a great deal of energy to maintain, since it must be vacuumed. Vacuuming alone does not clean carpet and instead creates an environment for pests, mold and mildew to reside. Most fiberglass insulation is made primarily from spun glass fibers and contains a phenol-formaldehyde (PF) binder, which off gasses harmful chemicals. In addition, the airborne fibers are also a potential carcinogenic hazard. Obviously this is but a small sampling of the health issues that can be of concern to those that are most susceptible.

WHERE DOES IT ALL COME FROM We often have clients ask if there is one central resource for green building guidelines. I wish there was; it would make our job a little easier. There isn’t just one but hundreds of resources that provide technical and design guidance. We have complied a short list of just some of the elements from a variety of resources that we feel are important. Realize, of course, that not every home will contain every feature; some will have more than others. It’s a matter of personal need, budget and location. But any home that is built with any of these items stands apart from the standard “code built” home. “ The effective application of the principles of science and the conscious design of our total environment help make the Earth's finite resources meet the needs of all humanity without disrupting the ecological processes of the planet”. R. Buckminster Fuller

FEATURES The features and benefits of responsible building can be summarized into three areas. Energy Management and Savings Overall improved health Environmental stewardship If only one of these areas is important to you, building any other way would seem to be irresponsible. Each of us, in some small way, has an obligation to protect the environment that we all share to protect those that we care about.

GREEN IS all around us The global implications of sustainable living are profound. Continuing to consume vast amounts of energy in a world where competition for increasingly scarce reserves of fossil fuel looms as a major cause of international conflict looks more and more like a very bad idea. Fortunately, there are communities that have taken leadership roles in promoting and implementing sustainable building. Cities like Austin, San Francisco, Boulder and Chicago are among the top ten; even Taiwan is on board! It's just a matter of time until the term "green building" will be redundant; all houses will be green. We're doing our part now!

GREEN IS THE NEW RED, WHITE, AND BLUE In a recent NY Times column entitled, “Green is the New Red, White, And Blue,” Thomas L. Friedman called making ourselves green, “. . the most important issue in U.S. foreign and domestic policy today. .” Focusing the nation on greater energy efficiency and conservation, he writes, “is not some girlie-man issue. It is actually the most tough-minded, geostrategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do." He calls for long-term government incentives for conservation and renewable energy, and concludes, “Enough of this . . . nonsense that conservation, energy efficiency and environmentalism are some hobby we can't afford. I can't think of anything more cowardly or un-American. Real patriots . . . live green. Green is the new red, white and blue."