Green from the Ground Up: Sustainable, Healthy, and Energy-Efficient Home Construction (Builder's Guide)

A thorough, informative, and up-to-date reference on green, sustainable and energy-efficient home construction that clarifies definitions of green and sustainable and guides builders and architects through the process of new or remodel green construction, including issues of site, landscaping, durability, and energy-efficiency. It starts with clear explanations of the concepts and fundamentals of green, healthy and energy-efficient construction and walks the reader through the entire construction process, injecting expert advice at every decision point. Construction techniques, materials, and products are thoroughly explained, making the often vaguely understood concepts cleanly understandable. The book gives builders and architects the tools to respond to growing requests from homeowners for green and energy-efficient houses, whether new or remodeled. Homeowners can use the book to understand the concepts, process, and options, whether they're doing it themselves or working with a professional.

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Green Restorations: Sustainable Building and Historic Homes

Some 40 percent of North Americans live in homes built prior to 1940, and when it comes time to remodel or restore our older homes, homeowners and contractors can find themselves lost in a morass of wildly divergent information and opinion. With Green Restorations, author Aaron Lubeck brings his expertise as a restoration contractor and preservation consultant to this first-of-its-kind guide, leading the reader through the steps for restoring historic buildings using sustainable practices and green building techniques.

In a readily accessible room-by-room and system-by-system format, Green Restorations covers rehabilitation and remodeling questions applicable to old homes, focusing on the core techniques and debates often seen in practice. Here you’ll find the answers to restoration questions, such as:

• Is sealing my old crawl space a good idea?
• Should I replace or rehabilitate my windows?
• Are there historic aspects of my home I need to preserve, and what can I change?
• What are the cultural, environmental, and financial implications of my proposed changes?
• Do residential historic tax credits apply to my home, and how can I access them?

Written in such a way as to be accessible for homeowners but technical enough for contractors, this book will appeal to anyone trying to green an older home while preserving its historic and cultural significance.

Aaron Lubeck is a partner with the award-winning Trinity Design/Build, a restoration and preservation consultancy in North Carolina. He is a member of the United States Green Building Council, and has completed the first historic building to be LEED-certified in North Carolina.

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New Green Home Solutions: Renewable Household Energy and Sustainable Living

Green living begins at home, and New Green Home Solutions tells you how. Most of the energy-derived pollution we produce comes as a direct result of our homes - how we heat them, how we cool them, how we keep them well-lit and full of things that make our lives so comfortable. The good news is that we have tremendous power to create change. Renewable energy design, better insulation and more efficient appliances could reduce energy demands by 60 to 80 percent. By embracing conservation and renewable energy, we can win our energy independence and help save the planet. 

Dave Bonta, president and founder of USA Solar Stores, the largest alternative energy retailer in the Northeast, has written about alternative energy and sustainable living for Green Living, Back Home Magazine, Alternative Energy Retailer and The Vermont Guardian. Bonta has studied renewable energy and energy efficiency for more than twenty years, is a frequent speaker at major green energy conferences across America and is a tireless advocate for green living. Also president of BioQuantum, Inc., a bio-fuels company, Bonta is the creator of BackHome chapters in America and is president of a renewable energy community organization, The Sustainable Valley Group.

Stephen Snyder, communications director for USA Solar Stores, is also the author of The Brewmaster's Bible (HarperCollins), The Beer Companion (Simon & Schuster) and The Brewmaster's Recipe Manual.

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New Natural Home: Designs for Sustainable Living

Inspirational houses from around the world: how architects and home owners can achieve harmony between dwellings and nature.

Our houses can be seen as living, breathing entities, extensions of ourselves and our families. This carefully considered publication provides the design inspiration to build and live in domestic spaces in a balanced, natural, sustainable way.

With the demands of all contemporary dwellings in mind—whether they’re found in the city, suburbs, or country—Dominic Bradbury considers the design basics one must follow in order to coexist with the planet’s resources.

Five chapters present successful projects from different parts of the globe, all specially photographed by Richard Powers.
     • Design and Build: where and how to create a modern natural home
     • Let There Be Light: manipulating the elements to improve lifestyle and interaction with nature
     • The Material World: using natural products to establish healthier relationships with the environment
     • Indoor/Outdoor Living: ideas for encouraging symbiotic relationships with the landscape, whether in the city or the country
     • Sustainable Footprints: how to naturally reduce domestic energy use

The book includes case studies and plans, a directory of architects, and a listing of featured houses, materials, and useful products. 340 full-color and 46 black-and-white photographs

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