The 2011 Built Green Conference and Festival ended last week, but its footprint will sustain until 2020 and beyond. The conference takeaways included: a challenge to improve energy performance for 20,000 existing homes by 2020; a new green building incentive level from Built Green; details on how to design and build to achieve zero net energy; and, award-winning green building projects.
Over 200 attendees participated in eight different programs and sessions. Details on the full program schedule, speakers and experts are online. Professionals that did not attend the conference will benefit from key conference details, such as:
- 20/20 Home Re-Fit Challenge: Built Green, Northwest EcoBuilding Guild and Home Performance Washington have partnered on the challenge to complete environmental and energy re-fits on 20,000 homes in the Puget Sound by 2020, and to increase their baseline energy performance. More details will be distributed the week of September 26, 2011.
- New Built Green Certification Rating: Built Green announced a new certification level, again raising the bar for innovative new construction projects. The new certification will require zero net energy and zero run-off among other strategies. Building and development projects qualify for certification at different levels using one of four Built Green checklists. Currently, projects can receive a 2-, 3-, 4- or 5-Star rating.
- zHome Visibility: Attendees toured the revolutionary 10-unit townhome development that uses smart design and cutting edge technologies to reduce environmental impact and reach zero net energy. Reduced water usage, zero net carbon emission, low-toxicity materials and clean indoor air are represented in the finished zHome project.
- Zero Net Energy Guidance: Author David Johnston, “Towards a Zero Energy Home,” highlighted the design and construction of self-sufficient houses from start to finish.
- Housing Stock Position: Aaron Adelstein, executive director of Built Green, contributed his ideas and opinions to the topic of “Upgrading Existing Housing Stock: Incentives for Green Retrofits and Remodels.”
- Built Green Hammer Awards: Seven different projects received the Built Green Hammer Awards for outstanding projects and participation in King and Snohomish Counties. The winners include:
- Natural and Built Environments, LLC (Single-family Large Production Builder)
- DC Granger, Inc. (Single-family Small Production Builder)
- Dwell Development (Single–family Small Production Builder)
- Shirey Contracting, Zero Energy Idea House in Bellevue (Single-family Custom or Small Speculative Project)
- Keller CMS/Urban Partners, Aspira Apartments in Seattle (Multifamily High Rise – over five stories)
- Legacy Partners, Legacy at River Park in Redmond (Multifamily Low Rise – under five stories)
- Martha Rose Construction, Fisher Singer Place in Shoreline (Built Green Community – small)
About Built Green: Built Green is an environmentally-friendly non-profit, residential building program of the Master Builder’s Association of King and Snohomish Counties, developed in partnership with King County, Snohomish County, and other agencies in Washington state. The Built Green website provides consumers with easy-to-understand rating systems, which quantify environmentally friendly building practices for remodeling and new home construction, communities and multi-family development units. www.builtgreen.net