by Rebecca Walker — January 11, 2010 Earth Advantage Institute, a nonprofit organization acting as the Northwest’s premier green building program, has listed 10 green building trends to look for in 2010.
In no particular order, they are:
1. The smart grid and connected home. While utilities will continue to make upgrades to the grid for more effective generation, storage and distribution of power, the big news is in the home. The development of custom and Web-based display panels that show real-time home energy use, and even real-time energy use broken out by individual appliance, will go a long way toward helping change homeowners’ energy behavior and drive energy conservation.
2. Energy labeling for homes and office buildings. The advent of more accurate energy rating systems for homes and office spaces similar to the miles-per-gallon sticker on your car has caught the attention of energy agencies and legislators around the country. Not only can it make a building-to-building or home-to-home comparison easier, but a publicly available score on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) could galvanize owners to make needed energy improvements while adding value to their building.
3. Building information modeling (BIM) software. The continued evolution of CAD software for building design has produced new add-on tools with increasingly accurate algorithms for energy modeling as well as embedded energy properties for many materials and features. This will prove instrumental in predicting building performance. BIM developers will soon be offering more affordable packages aimed at smaller firms and individual builders.
4. Buy-in to green building by the financial community. Lenders and insurers have come to see green homes and buildings as better for their bottom line and are working to get new reduced-rate loan products, insurance packages, and metrics into place. Lenders and insurers are realizing that green home owners are more responsible, place higher value on maintenance, and are less likely to default due to lower operating costs of homes and office buildings.
5. “Rightsizing” of homes. As we’ve seen during the current downturn, a larger home no longer translates into greater equity. Given that the forecast for home valuation remains conservative, that energy prices are expected to rise over time, and the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates mid-year, homeowners will likely feel more comfortable building smaller homes and smaller add-ons.
6. Eco-districts. Portland is already on the bandwagon with this one, encouraging the creation of greener communities where residents have access to all most services and supplies within walking or biking distance. These areas would also incorporate green spaces and green certified buildings. While we have such neighborhoods in the cities, the creation of walkable, low impact communities in the suburban setting is also gaining steam.
7. Water conservation. Because indoor and outdoor residential water use accounts for more than half of the publicly supplied water in the United States, the EPA finalized the WaterSense specification for new homes in December of 2009, which reduces water use by about 20 percent compared to a conventional new home.
8. Carbon Calculation. With buildings contributing roughly half the carbon emissions in the environment, the progressive elements in the building industry are looking at ways to document, measure and reduce greenhouse gas creation in building materials and processes.
9. Net Zero Buildings. A net zero building is a building that generates more energy than it uses over the course of a year, as a result of relatively small size, extreme efficiencies and onsite renewable energy sources such as wind, solar or geo-exchange systems. While the Architecture 2030 Challenge sets forth net zero as the goal for all buildings in 2030, we are already within striking distance on many fronts. Building extreme efficiency into a structure is highly cost effective and achieves the bulk of the net zero effort.
10. Sustainable building education. While the slowdown afforded many builders the opportunity to learn about green building and establish credentials, the momentum for green building is being supplied by homebuyers, homeowners and building owners.
