Chadsworth Homes Featured in Cardinal Bank’s Annual Report
Is Building Green the Same as Building Energy Efficient?
The answer is “yes and no”; while all homes that are green are energy efficient, not all energy efficient homes are green — of course that depends on the definition of “green”. This is confusing but to help make sense out of the green vs. energy efficiency question, it helps to think of green as a philosophy that incorporates energy efficiency.
There are many different green programs, with the best known being LEED, NAHB and ENERGY STAR. These programs are not equal and are not intended to accomplish the same results. As an example, a green program gives points if a load of lumber comes from a mill that is within 500 miles of the house, while an energy efficient program does not consider this in their scoring.
The question each homebuyer wants to ask him or herself is, “How much money am I willing to spend in order to build a home that lessens my impact on the earth…better known as my carbon imprint?” The answer will help decide whether to build green versus merely build an energy efficient home.