“Green Building” is fast becoming a way of life and is an important consideration for new construction and renovation projects. However, like many good ideas, the Green building movement runs the risk of becoming a marketing tool with the true benefits for customers and the environment becoming lost in the shuffle. At VC Design & Build, Green building is more than LEED credits and certifications; it is about making smart, cost effective choices that protect our environment while helping our clients save money. We call our common sense approach Green Green as in more Green in your wallet. 

Utilize square footage efficiently 
Green Green begins with good planning. Properly defining your wants and needs is critical to cost effective Green construction. Many of us have live in or visited homes and buildings that have a tremendous amount of unused or underutilized space. This excess square footage is very costly to both construct and maintain. By carefully planning and designing for your needs, we can help you make the most efficient use of your new space. This approach will have a big impact on your initial project costs by reducing construction time, materials used, and HVAC size requirements. Additional long-term benefits include a decrease in heating and cooling costs, power usage, and maintenance costs. Efficient building design may be the single most important factor in Green Green building. 

Site/plan match 
Matching the building site with the building plan is one of the most overlooked components to cost effective Green construction. Among the many factors to consider include: site topography, sun direction, amount of land disturbance, water runoff, and driveway length. In addition, care should be taken to minimize the impact to specimen hardwood trees. By altering the building location and minimizing the amount of excavation, you can protect these important features. Land disturbance that encroaches on the drip line of hardwoods will likely result in the death of the affected tree within 5 years. Finally, the most suitable building sites will enable all excavated soil to be used onsite and will require little or no import of additional soil for construction. Soil import and export is an expensive process that not only utilizes excess fuel and truck time, but also requires land disturbance at an additional location away from the main construction site. 

Construction methods 
While there are many new and fascinating products on the market supporting Green construction, you do not have to use them to realize the benefits of Green building. In fact, very simple choices can be made that will minimize the environmental impact of your project, without adding to your project costs. Products such as roof trusses and flooring systems can be built and pre-cut offsite. Using these products enables faster construction and reduces material usage. For an even larger Green impact, special framing techniques and engineered materials may be used that have the dual benefit of reducing construction materials and creating more space for insulation.

Construction waste is a very large contributor to our landfills. This waste can be dramatically reduced through recycling techniques, properly culling and reusing materials, and donating slightly used product to schools and other charities such as Habitat for Humanity.

By incorporating efficient space usage, strategic site planning, and new construction materials and methods into your building project, you can reap the rewards of the Green movement. With our Green Green approach, VC Design & Build helps our clients minimize the environmental impact of their project and realize significant savings.