Last July, my wife Bonnie and I enjoyed visiting
several homes meeting LEED standards that were part of Chicagoland’s 2013
GreenBuilt Home Tour. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design, and is a rating system designed to assure that buildings
are properly certified for a given level of performance. LEED is normally
associated with high-end commercial buildings, but the concept has now been
extended to residences. The process can be difficult, but homes that meet LEED
standards are more comfortable, less expensive to operate, have a reduced
risk of indoor toxic chemical exposures, and of course, promise
a lower carbon footprint. This is explained further in the website, LEED for Homes Illinois.
According to Jason Lefleur of the Alliance for
Environmental Sustainability, "We had a great summer weekend to enjoy the
inaugural GreenBuilt Home Tour which took place July 20-21. With 16
participating homes, 400+ attendees, and over 1,500 site visits, our first year
was a success.” To view these lovely homes, GreenBuilt Tour.
OK, back to the tour. The homes we visited
were in pleasant suburban neighborhoods west of Chicago. What we noticed in each home were various
custom design features and floor plans.
These were not designs from a designer’s catalog. The homeowners were
present, and seemed quite proud of how they integrated features that addressed
their particular needs. Many had a
detailed knowledge of how the advanced features of their homes worked. That included building envelope and window
construction, bamboo flooring, geothermal furnaces, and advanced heat recovery
ventilation systems. Yes, we were
talking to some serious eco-geeks, but the homes were both beautiful and
functional, and they looked much like conventional homes from the street. Interestingly, there were no solar
panels. Just high performance homes that
made our home seem primitive by comparison.
Although as a society we seem to nibble at the
edges of our problems, this represents our future. If LEED looks a bit expensive for you, be aware
that in Illinois all new construction must meet the new international energy conservation
standards for building construction, as described at the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity web site, ILDCEO.
With a growing interest in high performance
homes, and a statewide mandate, expect in the future some rather substantial
reductions in energy use that will make our communities more resilient to
future price swings for natural gas and electricity. As one local architect put it, this is a
“game changer.”
