Understanding the Greening of America

Making your home green sounds like an excellent idea, and in many ways, green homes appear to be a step individuals can take to help fight global warming. But when you dig deeper, you may begin to realize that consumerism has pushed its way into the greening movement to such an extent that it's difficult to figure out whether many of the so-called eco-friendly products are helping to protect the environment or if manufacturers have developed clever marketing ploys that mislead consumers.

Green is Controversial

Leading critics claim that many of the marketing efforts behind touting green are just other ways to manipulate the environmentally conscious into spending money on gimmicks and useless products. Some experts say the energy expended to plow and harvest sustainable building products such as bamboo, for example, puts more pollution into the air and uses more of our natural resources to produce than, say, creating chemicals to make plastic.

Making a Personal Effort

Years ago, conservation efforts took a "just say no" approach from the same page Nancy Reagan later used in her anti-drug efforts. The public was expected to cut back on buying consumer goods. Make a sacrifice and a personal effort, the government proclaimed, by making an attempt to:

• Conserve Water. Stick bricks in the toilet tank and buy water-reducing shower heads. Don't turn on a hose to spray the driveway -- grab a broom instead. Limit showers to 5 minutes. Water lawns on alternating days.

• Monitor the Thermostat. Don't blast the air conditioning at 72 degrees when 78 can be just as comfortable. When it's cold outside, maintaining your thermostat at 68 instead of 72 saves energy, so go put on a sweater.

• Walk and Don't Drive. Ride a bicycle. Walk to the corner store and back. Buy smaller vehicles that get higher miles per gallon. Use a carpool.

• Conserve Energy. Turn off lights in unused rooms. Unplug idle appliances. Read by candlelight. Caulk windows and doors. Warm cold rooms by lighting wood-burning fireplaces.

But today we are told to remodel the bathroom ($10,000 to $25,000 cost on average), buy a new furnace and air conditioning unit ($6,000 to $15,000) or instead of using hair dryers to shrink adhesive plastic over drafty windows, replace those old windows with new dual panes (8,000 to $30,000).

LEED® Green Building Rating System

How can we tell if a product is green? The government will tell us.

LEED stands for "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design." The U. S. Green Building Council (USGBC) developed LEED standards, which are the nationally approved standards for green buildings. USGBC maintains a large network of regional chapters, located in almost every state, whose purpose is to provide resources and education about green building. Although a proportionate number of its board members work for environmental and educational institutions, a few represent major corporations, manufacturers and construction interests.

LEED has established certification for building projects that meet or exceed its rigid set of guidelines and procedures. Depending on performance benchmarks, a building project can be awarded a variety of certifications, ranging from ordinary certification to platinum, the highest level obtainable.

To read about everyday green products for the home, and which types of sustainable building materials you can use when constructing a new home or remodeling an existing home, click here for Green Homes, page 2 of 2.