Greening the Summit
The use of recycled timber, including trees infected by mountain pine beetle, can create beautiful flooring, paneling and doors.
“Carbon Footprint” has become a buzz phrase as people are increasingly aware of how their energy expenditures negatively impact our planet.
Summit County, like many of the region’s resorts, has entered an era of rapid growth and has the construction crews to prove it. At just about every turn, commercial structures are being torn down or built, homes are erected at break-neck speeds, and roads are being created, widened and improved.
But with growth comes consequences beyond traffic congestion and more people in checkout lines — namely the ability of our natural environment to sustain us. Addressing social issues such as responsible energy use now will ultimately determine the future of the people who inherit this area after we have left it.
The buildings we work and live in account for a fantastic amount of energy expenditure and, consequently, pollution. By the US Green Building Council’s admission, “residential and commercial buildings account for more than 70 percent of electricity use and produce 38 percent of total U.S. CO2 emissions — more than either the transportation or industrial sectors.” It is clear where we need to start making changes.
Being “green” can be a feature of buildings of any scale and makes good sense in areas like Summit County because long, cold winters test any structure’s ability to retain heat and keep its occupants comfortable.
The US Green Building Council is the organization responsible for the coveted LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, which awards projects meeting a stringent set of guidelines aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of buildings. The Council approaches the process by “recognizing performance in five key areas in the design, construction, and operation of a building: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental 
quality.”
Despite a fractional increase in the built cost of a home, Green Building makes good economic sense because of paybacks year after year. Studies demonstrate an average savings of 30 percent in areas of energy consumption, 30-50 percent in water usage, and 50-90 percent from waste, not to mention a 35 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Taken cumulatively, this could amount to thousands of dollars saved every year. The environmental benefits are priceless.
Buildings with green features are also showing strong market values, with buyers consistently turning to properties that will save on operating costs.
How Can You Build Green?
1) Position your home with the sun in mind. A building with southern exposure can take advantage of all the sun has to offer — warmth and light. Passive solar design includes a number of features that provide the home with as much sunlight as possible to reduce the amount of electricity needed for light bulbs and heat for common rooms that are used the most. In the summer, passive solar design helps keep the building cool because of the sun’s higher position in the sky.
2) Renewable and easily recyclable materials can be beautiful additions to any home. Using reclaimed wood prolongs the lifespan of the material and keeps mature trees from being harvested. Wood floor alternatives like bamboo reach maturity in five years or less and come in a variety of attractive finishes. A walnut tree can still be maturing after 75. Ponderosa and Lodgepole pines that have fallen victim to the Colorado mountain pine beetle epidemic can be used for unique flooring, paneling, and doors.
3) Use environmentally friendly lighting. Traditional incandescent light bulbs use only ten percent of the energy they consume to make light and produce heat with the other 90 percent. Compact florescent lights (CFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have a much more favorable light to heat ratio and consume less energy to do so. A 23 watt CFL provides the same amount of light as a 100 watt incandescent and requires a 1/5th of the electricity.
4) Generate your own energy with a renewable energy system. Most homes have enough room on a south-facing roof to take advantage of the sun’s powerful rays. A small photovoltaic (PV) system can provide 25-50 percent of a single-family home’s electricity consumption while a solar thermal system can heat the home’s water. Wind and hydroelectric turbines become practical for larger, private homesites and can generate enough electricity to completely power the home from year to year.
5) Employ efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and ensure they are properly maintained throughout their lifespan. Comfort systems typically consume the vast majority of a home’s operating expense — having a quality system that is kept tuned will consistently save money. Change all filters at their required intervals to maintain healthy indoor air quality.
6) Reduce water usage by planting native species of trees and plants in the yard and leave as much of the existing native landscape as possible in its place during the building process. Natural landscape requires less watering, is more drought-tolerant, and looks better in a variety of environmental conditions than common decorative varieties.
7) High quality windows look better, reduce energy bills, require less maintenance, and filter UV radiation better than standard single-pane windows. When window shopping, check the window’s specific U-value, solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC), and air infiltration factors. A lower U-value keeps more heat inside the building and a higher SHGC allows more solar energy to pass through the window. An air filtration rating of less than .06 cubic feet per minute per foot keeps leakage at a minimum.
Buying locally produced materials and supplies cuts down on transportation costs. For every gallon of gas required to transport goods, 19.4 pounds of CO2 is released into the atmosphere.
Residential and commercial buildings across the United States account for immense demands on the worldwide energy supply and release immeasurable amounts of gaseous pollutants into our environment. We live, work, and play in a beautiful area. Doing our part now will help Summit County stay green.
Matthew Charles is with Colorado-based Grid Feeders, a renewable energy firm.
