LEED for HOMES: ID

LEED for Homes

i don't really want to go into a long tirade on why the USGBC (us green building council) and LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) is a little whack because that would take at least a few hours.  but if you are not familiar with what LEED is then know this, its an organization that provides guidelines for builders, architects, urban planners, and home owners on how to build better buildings, kind of like how europeans have been building for years, but again another time....


anyway, i was thinking about all of the awesome plans that björn and i have for building this house, and all of the (i think) innovative ideas we have employed along the way.  it got me curious about just how "green" (i hate this term) our project is going to be.  so i am going to track our progress going through the LEED checklist to see how well we are doing.


this week = Innovation & Design Process.  this section is all about planning, the requirements include having a preliminary meeting with your "project team" to discuss the project, set goals and determine a rating level that you want to strive for.  in our case the project team includes: björn and myself, derek from solar works in durango and our engineer dave wilson from wilson structural engineering.  we haven't had a meeting per se but we could right?!


this credit also includes points for having an integrated project team, which we do (1 point) and having a professionally credential team member, which I am (1 point)


we will also gain credit for completing a durability plan- which simply means following some guidelines that the USGBC sets forth that are kind of like- duh!  things like don't place carpet within 3 feet of an entry way to mitigate indoor moisture and drain water away from the exterior of the house for example.

the Innovation & Design section also allows for up to 4 points to be earned called Innovation points.  these are things that an individual has completed on a project that are over and above all of the LEED guidelines, the USGBC gives you the opportunity to submit a narrative and any supporting documents that will give you these Innovation points!


of the 11 points available we could certainly get 6, plus another 3 if we have a third party verify we are following a management plan for those items on that silly durability plan.  but that means more money to pay to the USGBC, imagine that..don't get me started!


so im going to call it 6 points, we are well on our way to LEED gold at least!  

going for gold