Backyard accessory dwelling units (ADUs) such as this one by Portland, Oregon, builder Hammer & Hand, are part of the trend towards greater urban density. (PRNewsFoto/Earth Advantage Institute)

Earth Advantage Institute, a nonprofit green building resource that has certified more than 12,000 homes, announced its annual prediction of 10 green building trends to watch in 2012.

The trends, which range from a boom in certified multi-family construction to the advent of consumer friendly home energy technology, were identified by Earth Advantage Institute based on discussions with a broad range of audiences over the latter part of 2011. These sectors included policymakers, builders, developers, architects, real estate brokers, appraisers, lenders, and homeowners.

“While the economy has not been kind to most new home builders, we have seen a surging interest in home energy management and energy improvement among homeowners,” said Sean Penrith, executive director, Earth Advantage Institute. “Those builders and remodelers who have adopted a transparent green message have been quite successful.”

1. Urban density. Filling in the spaces is the name of the game as homeowners and builders opt to create more living space through the construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs), laneway homes (bordering the back lane behind the main house), and build on infill lots. All this because the younger crowd and the empty nesters are opting to settle in the city where they can be closer to cultural activity, mass transit, more sustainable lifestyles, and other like-minded people.
2. Green multifamily homes. As a corollary to the urban density trend, Earth Advantage Institute has seen a large spike in Northwest multifamily building certifications this past year. The increased interest by building owners and operators in energy efficiency savings coupled with 2011′s 17% growth in multifamily homes (McGraw-Hill) means that we can expect to see a rise in certifications in this sector, especially in progressive regions.
3. Energy upgrades start to drive home remodels. Builders and remodelers who are plugged into changing consumer preferences (smaller homes, reduced energy bills) have been able to capitalize on energy upgrade work. They have moved into the energy audit and residential retrofit market by either expanding their service offerings or, in the case of large West Coast remodeler Neil Kelly, creating entirely new service groups. In the Northwest, demand has increased, leading to significant new energy improvement business for these firms. Remodelers see such work as a driver to help bring in more remodel leads.
4. Deployment and testing of new materials. Although architects and builders are eager to try new energy-saving materials and systems, these products require significant testing to ensure that the materials and benefits will last the life of the building and to avoid litigation. As a result, national labs and university research departments are partnering with builders to create test beds and sensor-filled buildings that log the energy performance of new materials and equipment. Portland State University‘s mechanical engineering department recently partnered with a local builder to measure the effects of phase change material used as insulation in a duplex passive house, while Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories is constructing a test bed that will track all performance aspects of new materials and equipment.
5. Consumer friendly home energy tracking devices. The introduction of the Apple-like Nest Learning Thermostat, and Belkin’s Conserve Insight energy use monitor that tracks energy use by appliance, are two of many sensor-based energy and water monitoring products for the home that are easy to use and help save money. Large electronics players like Fujitsu and Intel are also developing products, among others.
6. Energy education for commercial tenants. The growing adoption of commercial building energy disclosure (New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Seattle, Austin) has building owners/operators and utilities seeking effective ways to educate tenants on saving energy. Technology can only go so far in conserving energy without tenant participation.
7. Transparency in home marketing. The increasing use of smart devices by consumers to instantly access information at a home site means that buyers are much more informed and can see through any greenwashing claims. Those builders, remodelers, and real estate professionals who can clearly educate their clients about the benefits and features of energy efficient, green homes will be those who earn the buyers’ confidence.
8. More accurate appraisals. The old-school appraisal criteria based on a drive-by look at a home – view, approximate square footage – no longer holds. The ability for sellers and buyers to ask their banks for a green-certified appraiser (Certified Residential Green Appraiser) means that the lending community will buy into the idea of the additional value and return on investment offered by new certified homes and remodels.
9. Broader adoption of residential energy ratings for homes. Energy labeling systems are appearing in many states, offering a miles-per-gallon style estimate of a home’s energy consumption for homebuyers and homeowners. The Energy Performance Score and the Department of Energy’s own Home Energy Score have been rolled out in different climate zones across the U.S. to encourage homeowners to compare energy use and undertake energy upgrade work.
10. Smart grid-compatible high-performance homes. According to Smart Grid News, household appliances (heating and cooling systems, refrigerators, electronics, hair dryers) account for 60 to 90 percent of the residential electricity consumption in the U.S., depending on whose reports you read. Increasing numbers of those appliances are becoming “grid-aware” and are gaining the ability to monitor and report their own usage and to increase or decrease their electricity usage by remote command.

via 10 Green Building Predictions for 2012 from Earth Advantage Institute — PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ –.

Open Source Ecology is developing and testing the Global Village Construction Set, a set of tools to build replicable, open source, modern, off-grid resilient communities. By weaving open source permacultural and technological cycles together, we intend to provide basic human needs while being good stewards of the land, using resources sustainably, and pursuing right livelihood.

With the gift of openly shared information, we can produce industrial products locally using open source design and digital fabrication. This frees us from the need to participate in the wasteful resource flows of the larger economy by letting us produce our own materials and components for the technologies we use. We see small, independent, land-based economies as means to transform societies, address pressing world issues, and evolve to freedom.

via Open Source Ecology – Open Source Ecology.

This week representatives from 20 Pacific Northwest energy utilities gathered at the Efficiency Connections Northwest conference on the waterfront in Seattle. They came to hear from energy efficiency experts and each other about solutions to energy efficiency challenges here.

“This strong showing of Northwest utilities should help dramatically accelerate energy efficiency in our region,” said Claire Fulenwider, Executive Director at the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), which organized the two-day conference.

Speaking about a pilot program in Seattle, Welhelm said,

“The program uses peer pressure by comparing a homeowner’s energy consumption with 100 of their neighbors.”

Dana Anderson of Avista Utilities in Spokane, WA, is trying to get a head start on behavior change. She runs programs designed to help young people learn lifelong energy conservation habits.

Avista’s character “Wattson the Energy Watchdog” is on track to reach 100,000 children through entertaining shows. Teenagers have entered more than 130 videos in the “Every Little Bit Video” contest promoted through Facebook. And Avista’s latest program, launched in October, uses a video fashioned after a reality TV show to reach college renters.

via Utilities Join Forces to Share Ideas about Energy Efficiency.

• 100k House Blog: A blog that began as a journal of quest to build a $100,000 LEED Platinum home has evolved into a full-fledged source for green building info.
• Sustainable Building Codes: The author is a building code regulator who advocates the revision of modern building codes in order to encourage more sustainable construction.
• Green Building Law Update: Issues in the green building industry that hinder progress are brought to light by a construction consultant.
• Green Building Law Blog: Although the blog is run by an attorney based in Baltimore, insight is given into green building law and issues that affect the country.
• Green Building Law: Green Building Law is based in the Pacific Northwest, but it covers a variety of green building legal issues important to people nationwide – not unlike Green Building Law Blog.

A new article has just popped up on Wikipedia, called Sustainability Organizations, which lists groups in ag, building, business and much more, all working on sustainability issues of one sort or another.

An Arts and Crafts wallpaper image by way of illustration of the blooming of the green building industry.

As we’ve reported in the past, the “green” building industry (new, retrofit, and prefab) is booming. Here’s a round up of reports about the ongoingess of it all, news-hooked on a report from McGraw-Hill Construction.

Despite a deep economic recession, the U.S. green building market has expanded dramatically since 2008 and is projected to double its size by 2015, says a new report by McGraw-Hill Construction.

The report comes as the private U.S. Green Building Council holds its annual Greenbuild conference this week in Chicago, which has attracted tens of thousands of attendees from more than 100 countries and more than 900 companies exhibiting their green products.

via Report: Green building market booms in weak economy – Green House – USATODAY.com.

The report, “Green Outlook 2011: Green Trends Driving Growth,” found that green building represented 25 percent of all new construction activity in 2010 and that the value of green building construction starts was up 50 percent from 2008 to 2010 — from $42 billion to $55 billion-$71 billion.

The report, according to Earth and Industry, says that

Not only are new homes in the U.S. getting smaller, they are getting greener….

green building represented 25 percent of all new construction activity in 2010 and that the value of green building construction starts was up 50 percent from 2008 to 2010 — from $42 billion to $55 billion-$71 billion.

And the growth spurt isn’t over. According to projections, by 2015, the size of the green building market is expected to grow to $135 billion.

In the press release obviously lurking behind both these reports is this widely reproduced quote:

“It’s an amazing area of opportunity at time when the construction market is extremely challenged,” said Harvey M. Bernstein, vice president, Global Thought Leadership and Business Development, McGraw-Hill Construction. “In today’s economy, firms that specialize in green or serve this market are seeing a tremendous advantage–and they’re doing good at the same time. Green building leads to healthier places for us to live and work in, lower energy and water use, and better profitability.”

This is great news, but green-washing and bubble-thinking also become more of a danger in the wake of reports like this that are produced by members of the industry. We can argue the epistemological validity of “objectivity” until we’re blue in the face but this is a simple case of journalistic common sense: follow the money that hired the researchers and writers of the report.

We combine the craftsmanship and on-site care of expertly “stick-built” homes with the speed, efficiency and quality control of pre-fab construction. The result (and it’s a game-changer) is the minimalist+ SiteFabTM process.

In a short, funny, data-packed talk at TED U, Catherine Mohr walks through all the geeky decisions she made when building a green new house — looking at real energy numbers, not hype. What choices matter most? Not the ones you think.

via TED Blog: Building green: Catherine Mohr on TED.com.

Green building has been a status symbol among the wealthy. But a transformation is taking place up and down the quiet corridors of the 70-unit affordable housing project that has risen on a grubby stretch of Atlantic Avenue near the Compton border.

The $31-million Casa Dominguez project, built by the Los Angeles-based affordable housing developer Abode Communities, is aiming to be the first multifamily affordable housing project in Los Angeles County to win the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum certification, the U.S. Green Building Council's highest LEED rating.

The building was constructed with a prefabricated framing system that reduced waste. An on-site healthcare clinic and a child-care center lessen residents' need to drive. The playground surface is made from recycled tires, and drought-tolerant landscaping is irrigated with gray water from the washing machines.

via Living clean and simple: Affordable housing goes green – Brand X.

While start-ups have played a crucial role in getting the green industry off the ground, the future will likely be dominated by large, sprawling conglomerates. Why? Green technology essentially involves revamping the physical infrastructure of the modern world: replacing coal-fired power plants with wind turbines, building homes from materials concocted in chemistry laboratories, and swapping out engines for electric motors. Established companies simply are in a far better position to muster the capital, technological depth, managerial expertise and factory capacity needed.

via 10 Green Giants That Could Change the World – The Green Eye – CBS News.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, the epicentre of smug green consumerism, where self-proclaimed environmentalists drive to wholefood shops to load their fuel-inefficient hybrid SUVs with too much organic produce. They should read Heather Rogers’s stories and weep.

Rogers traveled a long way to investigate the emerging green economy. Her destinations included supposedly organic sugar-cane plantations in Paraguay and tracts of rainforest in Borneo that are being felled to produce palm oil for biofuel.

Having flown all over the globe, Rogers did not try to salve her conscience by buying “carbon offsets,” which are supposed to negate air miles by funding tree-planting or renewable electricity projects in developing countries. When you read her account of the problems with auditing these schemes in India, you’ll understand why.

Green Gone Wrong is primarily a fast-paced travelogue, which leads to some loose ends and an uneven structure. In India, for instance, we are told that a carbon-offsetting project is “perhaps” composting ash into organic fertiliser, “but I saw no trace of it”. (Having done my share of “touristic” journalism, I've experienced similar difficulties: on a flying visit, it is hard to tell whether you're looking at part of the problem, or part of the solution.)

via CultureLab: Green consumption and false economies.