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Green Living Guidelines: Energy Efficient, Earth Friendly, Healthy Home, Water Conservation
Green Living Guidelines
Good news for you, Kermit: It's not that hard being green anymore. Products claiming green status seem to be popping up all over, and support for the concept has almost become a given. In fact, the only hard part now is pinning down exactly what it means to be green.
Joyce Mason, vice-president of marketing for California's Pardee Homes, has an answer. The company built its first Energy Star home in 1998 and has built 3,000 energy-efficient houses with environmentally friendly materials since 2001. Here's this residential builder's definition of green:
- Minimizes the use of nonrenewable energy, water, and other natural resources.
- Provides a house with a healthy indoor environment built in a community with a healthy outdoor environment.
- Uses products that reduce harmful effects on the environment.
- Controls house size.
- Designs appropriately for the climate zone.
- Treats a house as a system of interrelated components.
The company matches products with these principles in four categories (more to follow on each):
- Energy smart
- Earth smart
- Health smart
- Water smart
Continued on page 2: Energy-Smart Products
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