one step at a time
When we set out to build our home, we wanted to go for LEED Certification, which is the United States Green Building Council’s seal of approval that a home has been built to their standards and verified by a third party. Personally, I wanted to understand how hard it would be to achieve LEED Certification, how much it cost, the pros and cons, etc.
First, I should say that we moved in 13 months ago, and we are still not yet LEED Certified. And that is mostly my fault, because I volunteered to be the project manager (I didn’t want to pay someone else to do it). As I go through the LEED Checklist, I am pretty sure we will get certain points for how we built the home, and I think we will make the level of Silver (there are 4 levels: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum). If we add a solar system, that will surely put us in the gold range. I don’t think there is anything we can do to put us in the Platinum level; it seems that the benefits of going that far do not outweigh the costs.
I plan to use this blog over the next several months to go through each category in LEED for Homes and tally up our points. The categories are: Innovation & Design Process, Location and Linkages, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials & Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Awareness & Education. I am also interested in the incremental costs (and benefits) that LEED certification requires (and provides); so where relevant, I will write about that as well.
At the end of this process, I will take the LEED AP exam to be an accredited professional! And, because I have worked intimately with one particular case study, I will know the good, bad, and ugly of the LEED for Homes Rating System. I will share it all for the advancement of authentic green building.