Going Green

Like all industries these days the homebuilding industry has heard the call to “Go Green”. Customers are expecting the new homes they buy to be more energy efficient, more comfortable and to create less waste when being built.

But the problem can be deciding whether your builder is simply using the green label as a marketing tool, while not really changing their building practices, or whether they have embraced the new techniques and technologies that can really make a difference in the way a new home performs.

So having said that what is green building anyway? The best definition of green building, I have discovered, is in a Weyerhaeuser iLevel publication, Green Simplified:

“While there is no commonly accepted definition, a green home is one that minimizes impacts on the human and natural environment. This can include actions to boost energy efficiency, reduce construction waste, improve indoor air quality, and use water more wisely, among other considerations.”

Here at Guenther Homes we incorporate “Green” building practices!

1. Reducing construction waste: When we construct our homes we use wall panels, roof trusses and floor trusses made off site in indoor facilities. These facilities use the wood products very efficiently and engineer the production and assembly of the panels to create as little waste as possible. And the waste that is generated can be recycled.
2. Boosting energy efficiency: The biggest loss of energy in a home is through air leakage. We incorporate an energy seal into each home that seals cracks throughout the entire structure. This step is done twice during the construction. Once upon the completion of the rough framing and then again after drywall. Studies have shown that this step alone can save up to 30% of the homes’ utility costs! To make the most of the fuel that is needed in the home we use a 95% efficient furnace and high efficient water heater.
3. Indoor air quality. The energy seal also assists in keeping dust and airborne debris from the outside from entering the home. And fresh air is ducted in from the outside to the combustion area near the furnace and hot water heater. To ensure that all fuel-burning appliances operate safely, air must be provided while they are operating. Without this make up air, your house can quickly become polluted with unhealthy gases, including deadly carbon monoxide (CO).
4. Reduce water use. By using low-consumption toilets and faucets we reduce the amount of water used in the home.
5. Land Conservation and Erosion control.  As we plan and develop our neighborhoods we put an emphasis on set aside conservation areas and water run off erosion control. In a Guenther neighborhood it is very common to see deer, fox, waterfowl and other wildlife flourishing in the woods and wetlands that are protected as part of the overall development plan. In Plum Grove in Monroe there is a bald eagle that visits the ponds that we created as well as bufflehead ducks and egrets.

Many of us here at Guenther spend hours with our families in Michigan’s great outdoors. Our commitment to environmental responsibility is more then a slogan.