For the eleventh year, BuildingGreen has announced their list of Top-10 Green Building Products. BuildingGreen picks the products from additions to the GreenSpec Directory, coverage in Environmental Building News, and blogs on BuildingGreen. Make sure to keep this selection of residential-related winners on your radar:
The Earth Advantage Institute has certified more than 12,000 green homes, so it’s safe to say they know what’s going on with green building. Towards the end of 2011, the non-profit spoke with various policymakers, builders, developers, architects, brokers, appraisers, lenders, and homeowners to understand green building trends. Here are the 10 green building trends EAI says to watch for in 2012, which we’ve paraphrased below:
It’s fun to reflect on the prior year and review site stats to see what was the most popular with readers. Without looking at these stats, I watch as articles circulate via Twitter, Facebook, and Plus — it’s some sort of a real-time feedback loop for what readers want and don’t. What will be huge in 2012? I hope you’ll let me know.
With off-site construction, homeowners can benefit from things like accelerated construction, controlled construction, construction without the elements, reduced construction waste, access to a skilled workforce, etc. So it’s no surprise that the prefab industry continues to expand — we’re tracking that! In fact, here are 22 built projects that we mentioned in the last year (with high hopes for several more next year, too):
The Passive House movement in the US was on a major tear in 2011 but for that awful split between PHIUS and international PHI. The standard seemed free of maneuvers and politics and infighting, yet now there’s something about PHIUS+ certification and a ban on spray polyurethane foam insulation. Oh boy! Notwithstanding all of this, let’s not take anything from the following incredible, high-performance, completed projects discussed in the past year that sought or achieved Passive House certification.
The biennial Solar Decathlon finished today and teams will begin the grunt work of taking their homes back or sending them off if the homes were acquired. As we’ve done in the past, here’s a short roundup of all 19 Solar Decathlon homes for 2011. The competition fosters the design, build, and operation of net-zero energy homes that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. Maryland won the entire competition, and Appalachian State was given the People’s Choice Award.
