Go Green With Us    

Green or sustainable construction is a philosophy that centers on the efficient use of energy, water and materials while decreasing the impact on health and the environment and reducing waste.  It's going to be the way homes are built.  Whether in the form of a tax credit, grant, or subsidy, federal money is becoming more available to offset costs of greening a home or building.

What LEED Is

LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO² emissions reduction and improved indoor environmental quality.

Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED provides building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

Green Building is Here, "Clean" Energy Coming

The term "Green Building" means more to some than to others.  For instance, it's critical to the city of Santa Fe and the Home Builders Association of Sante Fe.  The home builders group helped to put together the city's green building code, which was signed July 1.  Santa Fe Community College are building an $11 million Sustainable Technologies Center expected to be completed in 2010.  The college already offers degrees and certificates in biofuels, environmental technologies, facilities technologies, green building construction skills, green building systems and solar energy.

Green buildings: Chicago tops U.S. cities.

Mayor Richard Daley wants to make Chicago the greenest city in America.  By one measure, he's done it.  Chicago now has more certified green buildings than any other city in the country, according to figures from the U.S. Green Building Council.  Daley has been a vocal advocate of green architecture.  The city requires new public buildings to achieve LEED certification.  Also, public and private projects getting city assistance must have a green roof or pursue green building certification.

Check out some of our "Green" Suppliers:

http://www.certainteed.com/buildingresponsibly/awards/

http://greenguard.pactiv.com/greenology.aspx#overview

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