Habitat "Goes Green" and Takes the LEED

Making homes greener is a commitment – to our partner families, our community and the world. But more than that, it is a learning process. As exciting new technologies, products and scientific breakthroughs constantly emerge, staying educated on the hows – as well as the whys – of building and maintaining a green home is the best way to ensure Habitat for Humanity Nantucket’s efforts are as effective and beneficial as possible to the Nantucket community.

 

What is a Green Home?

 

A green home uses less energy, water and natural resources, creates less waste and is healthier for the people living inside compared to a standard home. It’s as simple as that!

 

A home can be built green, or you can make it green later. Habitat Nantucket has elected to build all of its homes in a “green” or “sustainable” way using the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program, a nationally recognized framework for building better, more energy efficient and affordable homes. 

 

LEED awards points for various measures taken toward making a home green. If Habitat exceeds the minimum number of points needed, the home receives certification from the US Green Building Council, creator of the LEED system. Under LEED, we use a third-party consultant to guide us through the certification process and for quality control. This consultant – a leading energy efficiency firm - offers Habitat valuable knowledge of “best practices” from many other groups building green homes throughout New England. This consultant also helps create an “energy model” for our design to see how efficient it is compared with a typical stick-built home – we are shooting for 40% better on all our homes. 

 

It all comes down to is a new/old way of thinking – and a new/old way of living: design a smaller home, which reduces energy needs, install more efficient systems and appliances, and make buildings “tighter” with less air infiltration. We use reduced VOC paints to improve indoor air quality, low-flow plumbing fixtures to reduce water usage, and durable materials to reduce long term maintenance for our families. Lower monthly energy bills are further assured with the incorporation of solar thermal systems for both heat and hot water.

 

Many of these common sense ideas have been in use for several decades but it has taken programs like LEED for Homes to tie them all together and set the standards needed to make a real difference.