Author: Mary Fifita

With regard to construction and demolition waste, getting to zero will require completely rethinking a building’s design and construction. Open flex space, which is meant to be rearranged over time as the demands of the residents change, must be incorporated into the design. It will incorporate strategies focused on designing to template specifications and manufacturing in a production setting. Any waste that can be recycled will be used in the original product manufacturing facilities. Jobsite waste will be sent back to facilities for reuse in making new products. Small wood scraps can be processed into engineered wood products, and gypsum…

Waste is a by-product of nearly every activity on Earth, representing tremendous “waste” of a variety of resources, everything from natural raw materials, to the energy and water required to produce products. Our neglect in controlling or eliminating waste adds unnecessary cost to products providing no useful benefit. When we consider the costs of waste disposal and the related impact on the environment, our total cost of ownership of products is greatly increased. However, as they say, “What is waste for one is treasure for another.” Getting to zero waste requires employing two strategies: opportunities to reuse or repurpose materials…

Quality building materials are durable with long life expectancies and less frequent maintenance, repair and replacement cycles. Specifying quality building materials assures that the least amount of waste is sent to the landfill over the life of the home. For example, a metal roof will generally last three times as long as a composition shingle roof with less maintenance required over its lifespan. Fiber-cement siding is resistant to pests, fire and weather damage, and brick and stone claddings are durable for the life of the building, as well as reusable or recyclable at the end of that useful life. Building…

Most heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) contractors are unaware of the systems approach used in building science and green building. For this reason, they often oversize equipment because they fail to recognize the inherent efficiencies achieved when a whole-house design approach is employed. Even if they are aware of good design principles, for the reasons previously stated regarding inefficiencies in home design, they can’t employ them on the job so they just oversize the equipment and hope that extra capacity can overcome installation issues. The result is systems that are more expensive to install and less efficient to operate.…

Rainwater Collection To achieve net zero water, we need to first determine the volume of water we are able to capture from our roof area and store, and then how much of that can be used for each application necessary for us to sustain our site. Determining how much rainfall you can capture depends upon how large a roof area you have and how accessible that surface is in terms of installing a gutter, downspout and piping system to carry your capture to storage tanks. The storage capacity you will need is determined by looking at the rainfall patterns for…

As society further recognizes the cost of large-scale district or municipal water treatment plants to treat water to potable water standards, as well as the cost of building and maintaining large potable and wastewater infrastructure systems, moving more to localized systems makes more sense. But using a community-wide treated water supply as a sole source of water for landscape purposes is an expensive waste, especially in terms of the energy used to treat and pump it. This cost can rise exponentially if expensive lift stations are required in your area due to topography. Rainwater makes much more sense, and it…

Now let’s follow the water flowing through the meter into the typical household. Low-flow toilets, faucets, and showerheads continue to be associated with residential water conservation among many builders and homeowners. Surprisingly enough, we find that while inefficient fixtures do cause us to use more water than we need to, most of the water consumed inside the house is being wasted down the drain at various sinks and showers after you turn the faucet on and stand there waiting for the hot water to arrive. It is most important that we make improvements to reduce that waste before we invest…

The treatment and pumping processes required for municipal water and wastewater services can be the largest consumer of electric energy for the region that they service, so saving treated water can also significantly impact energy production needs. One of the interesting findings of a study published by the EPA in 2008 was that 50-78 percent of typical residential water use was in non-potable areas. The energy savings alone, to treat water to potable standards, including that required for pumped delivery to the customer, is substantial. Taking these non- potable uses off the table would result in huge savings in energy.…

Electrical systems are one of the most inefficient systems in a home. Usually not much thought goes in to planning how the electricity might be used, managed or protected from disruption. As the main energy-using systems (HVAC and water heating) become more efficient through advances in product technology, design and installation, the remaining “LAMEL” (lighting, appliances and miscellaneous electrical loads) represent a larger percentage of the total home load. Only recently have product manufacturers started thinking about wasted power consumption—the power used by appliances, electronics and other equipment when not in use. Some electronic component manufacturers now include sleep modes…

Rectangular Footprint: In this article, we talked about basic house design. You can save a tremendous amount of money on both the design of your home and its construction costs by staying as close as possible to a rectangular footprint. You will save money on footings and beams for your foundation, as these add up quickly for every deviation in the design. Then look at the impact on the structural wall and roof design for each of those projections or turns-these can also really add cost. Again, every time you complicate a design, it requires more materials to build and…