Saturday, December 05, 2009

What is Green Building?

According to Wikipedia....

Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use and harvest energy, water, and materials, and reducing building impacts on human health and the environment, through better site use, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal — the complete building life cycle.

Green building is also sometimes known as "sustainable building" or "environmental building", although there are slight differences in the definitions. The practice of green building can lead to benefits including reduced operating costs by increasing productivity and using less energy and water, improved public and occupant health due to improved indoor air quality, building small with small houses, small homes, and tiny cabins and reduced environmental impacts by; for example, by lessening our carbon footprint through wise product use, engineered products, good space usage by designing small house plans, tiny house plans, and small cabin plans that use good cabin design and lumber products which are Chain-of-Custody (COC) certified--products that are third-party certified have been reviewed or tested against a set of standards by an organization that is independent of the manufacturer or its trade association; and low-emitting products which have little or no harmful products that are emitted into the air. The amount of off-gassing coming from a product can only be quantified in a laboratory. Look for third-party certifications for caulks, paints, flooring products and wood products. The Breathe Easy is a low emitting non toxic cabin example.

Reducing the use of natural resources through the integration of recycled products in building materials is a strong resource efficiency concept. One example of a recycled and engineered material is composite decking, Airkrete, and Soft Touch Insulation. They are made of both pre- and post-consumer recycled materials such as plastic jugs, recycled plastics, wood fibers, and recycled cotton (blue jeans). The Wildflower is an example of using the following attributes of green building.

  • Locally produced
  • Reduced waste (engineered)
  • Chain-of-Custody certified
  • Third-party certified low-emitting
  • Recycled content
  • Water conserving
  • Energy conserving
  • Durable

Tiny Green Cabins LLC builds small cabins, tiny cabins that are transportable as well as mountain cabins, small houses, and small homes as well as designing custom house plans for the individual that wants to live a sustainable lifestyle in harmony with our planet.

"God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.
- John Muir"

What is Green Building?

According to Wikipedia....

Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use and harvest energy, water, and materials, and reducing building impacts on human health and the environment, through better site use, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal — the complete building life cycle.

Green building is also sometimes known as "sustainable building" or "environmental building", although there are slight differences in the definitions. The practice of green building can lead to benefits including reduced operating costs by increasing productivity and using less energy and water, improved public and occupant health due to improved indoor air quality, building small with small houses, small homes, and tiny cabins and reduced environmental impacts by; for example, by lessening our carbon footprint through wise product use, engineered products, good space usage by designing small house plans, tiny house plans, and small cabin plans that use good cabin design and lumber products which are Chain-of-Custody (COC) certified--products that are third-party certified have been reviewed or tested against a set of standards by an organization that is independent of the manufacturer or its trade association; and low-emitting products which have little or no harmful products that are emitted into the air. The amount of off-gassing coming from a product can only be quantified in a laboratory. Look for third-party certifications for caulks, paints, flooring products and wood products. The Breathe Easy is a low emitting non toxic cabin example.

Reducing the use of natural resources through the integration of recycled products in building materials is a strong resource efficiency concept. One example of a recycled and engineered material is composite decking, Airkrete, and Soft Touch Insulation. They are made of both pre- and post-consumer recycled materials such as plastic jugs, recycled plastics, wood fibers, and recycled cotton (blue jeans). The Wildflower is an example of using the following attributes of green building.

  • Locally produced
  • Reduced waste (engineered)
  • Chain-of-Custody certified
  • Third-party certified low-emitting
  • Recycled content
  • Water conserving
  • Energy conserving
  • Durable

Tiny Green Cabins LLC builds small cabins, tiny cabins that are transportable as well as mountain cabins, small houses, and small homes as well as designing custom house plans for the individual that wants to live a sustainable lifestyle in harmony with our planet.

"God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.
- John Muir"

Monday, November 23, 2009

Dare to Dream

I learned this, at least, by my experiment;
that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,
he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
from the "Conclusion" to Walden by Henry David Thoreau

For several years in talking to my sons, I have talked about pursuing their dreams, and yet found myself unable to take the risk for myself. The weekend of Nov 13, 2008, at a retreat in Northern Minnesota on Gull Lake the idea and dream surfaced and an active discussion followed. This time, it went further than dreams and idle talk, but actually moved into a mind mapping of the idea, and before long we had on paper given some hard reasons to follow the dream.

We listed the advantages and disadvantages to pursuing the venture of building small houses, tiny cabins, tiny homes, and tiny houses. The experience side started with the ability to design small house plans and cabin plans, then use those small house plans to build the actual small house and tiny green cabins.

For Experience; I do have 35 years of carpentry and management experience in building small and large houses of all types and styles; managing crews, design teams, manufacturing departments, and improvement teams for businesses.

Another advantage is the location of property that is owned on a busy highway, along with a large shop building to build small houses and tiny cabins, and a display area on highway 61 for showing off the completed tiny cabins. The highway has a traffic count of 10,000 hits a day and projected to 25,000 within 5 years. The potential is there for a lot of growth.

The downside of all the advantages is the state of the economy, locally and nationally. And if a business makes it in this environment, it will definitely be strategically ready when the business climate recovers. And it will recover!

Part of the planning of the business, besides drawing small house plans, and building a model of a tiny cabin, is having a network of support in the venture, be it financial, emotional or mentoring. Rev. Nancy Herrick from Our Spiritual Center , Elizabeth Traff, Carol Austin from Cross Dental Care, Daisy Mckinley, Jerry Wescott, and Bill Schmidt along with many others provided emotional support, guidance, and a open forum to bounce ideas around with. I thank each of these special friends for being along with me on this journey.

This blog, will follow that dream, and currently, I am in the stage of writing the business plan and laying out the website. Thinking funding would be limited, there was a concern, until a friend who believed in the dream offered hard cash as an investor. I know this dream is taking hold and all I need to do is follow the steps of the dream and hold onto the trolley strap for the ride. Italics from Wayne Dyers book, "Power of Intention"

Here's Thoreau's cabin: