Green

Waste

For the first decade or so of my adult life I drove well used VW Bugs; they were affordable and easily repaired. With one of them I needed to fix the hand brake. The part needed was a release button which screwed into the brake handle. The parts man at the VW dealership informed me that they couldn't sell me just the button; I would need to buy the complete hand brake assembly at a cost of $128. How do I remember an exact figure from forty years past? Because $128 was my weekly net pay from my teaching job. What a stupid waste of money and material.
Fast forward-last month I needed to replace the middle section of a three piece front bumper on a 1958 MGA. Moss Motors, the largest supplier in this country of replacement parts for British cars would not sell me just the center section. I had to buy all three sections. What a stupid waste of money and material. So, in almost half a century not much has changed. TZ

Greenwashing

If you’re somewhere in the process of building a home - thinking about it, getting ready to hire a builder, digging a hole, or already planning your move-in date – chances are you’ve heard a lot about “green building.” The glut of information on the subject has left a lot of us scratching our noggins. Building professionals from architects and designers to contractors and construction workers are getting bombarded, too, and a lot of them are probably as confused as the layman consumer – even though they’re less likely to know or admit it.

Like any buzzword, “green building” is gradually being drained of its meaning. It’s a strange dance: the more energetically you try to distinguish yourself as a green builder, the more you become like everyone else, and the more everyone else becomes like you. You can leave me off this dance card.

To be sure: we all have to start getting our act together. But green building is a vast and complicated field, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there are lots of folks who are so heavily invested in it that they’re beginning to battle it out over who’s right, who’s doing it best, who’s bamboozling the public, and on and on. What we have is a lot – a whole lot – of folks scrambling to hop on the green building bandwagon. Let’s be honest: in the face of day after day of dire predictions about the fate of the planet, wouldn’t you like to be told that you are doing something vital to our future? You bet you would!

So a general contractor can feel pretty good about making you feel pretty good that everything’s going to turn out pretty good after all, especially if you hire him or her to build your house. There’s damn good money to be made by peddling the qualifications and certifications and approvals and accreditations and seals of good environmental housekeeping that help us sleep soundly through the greenwashing din.

About a year ago, Tony Zaya and I brought out a book on hybrid timber framing. Flush with the pride of having published my first book, I handed the books out to friends and family and waited for their praise. One of the lucky recipients didn’t congratulate me, didn’t call or write to say how enjoyable and wonderful the book was, … nothing. I was hurt. Eventually, I found out – a little obliquely - that this person thought it was raping the planet to build with heavy timbers. Fair enough, I suppose. But that opinion wasn’t backed up with any real understanding of the whole science of building in an environmentally responsible manner, or any understanding of building at all, for that matter. It was a knee-jerk reaction.

In fact, timber frame hybrids can make a lot of sense environmentally. A timber frame roof system, for example, creates an efficient structural system that can eliminate a host of unnecessary framing, and can be insulated without the cold-bridging – and energy inefficiency - inherent in conventionally-framed roofs. The majority of timber frames today are built with materials that are sustainably harvested from managed forests and from standing dead trees, or from recycled and reclaimed timbers. And the likelihood that your timber frame will last generations is inherently “green.”

Greenwashing – the unscrupulous and manipulative use of the term “green” to attract customers – isn’t going to make anything on this planet any greener. What’s needed is for all of us to invest time in acquiring the knowledge needed to make informed choices is what’s needed, not a parade with barkers and snake-oil salesmen. Don’t forget that no matter how green you build, if you don’t live green, too, it won’t make enough of a difference.

- Tim Diener

Green

If you have perused our website you may well have noticed the absence of banners or headings touting our greenness or our subscription or alliance with LEED. This omission has been deliberate. We have resisted festooning our website, brochures and stationary with green eco friendly logos. We have resisted not because we are non-believers; but, rather, precisely because we are true-believers. It is what pulled us into this craft so many years ago.

Trees are the only renewable structural material we have and the expense to convert trees into timbers is, comparatively, extremely low. Moreover, timbers are natural, biodegradable and recyclable. Hand crafting such a material in a manner which yields beauty, ensures longevity all the while protecting, sheltering and nurturing is, to us, the essence of sustainability and greenness. We resisted because we do not wish to be counted with those companies who claim to have the vision but who lack the soul, with those companies who wave a green banner in order to entice prospective clients. We do not have a bandwagon upon which to jump because we have been walking that walk for decades.

Building "green" is as old as mankind itself. It was practiced because it made sense not because it was politically correct or because it reduced one's carbon footprint. It simply made sense.

We have been involved with LEED certification, in fact, we are currently in the middle of a very complex LEED project with the federal government and while we applaud the higher intentions of LEED and similar programs, there are contradictions, problems, convoluted logics and ambiguities born of bureaucracies. In future installments we will be addressing our concerns about these areas as well as looking at some of the well intended but truly stupid and misguided things we have all done. We may not have all the answers, but we have a lot of questions. So bear with us. TZ

As I age I find that lifetime guarantees become less important and that other people become more kindly disposed towards, and are less inclined to take offense at, comments I make. Maybe there's some special dispensation that's granted to those of us on the leading edge of the boomer generation or maybe people are simply kind to their elders. In any case, I am going to take advantage of such latitude to express some opinions, explain some positions and perhaps tell some stories. I've invited the other members of the team here at LCTF to contribute as the mood hits them. I do suspect that Tim Diener will be a regular. Though younger than I; he is, nonetheless, a card carrying (AARP) member of the baby boomer generation, so please give him little indulgence also. TZ