As a member of the Dallas Green Building Alliance I feel it is necessary to let consumers know what green building programs are in our area.  Green Built Texas has been a valuable resource to the green community for some time now.  All members of the Dallas Green Building Alliance are members of Green Built Texas.

What is Green Built Texas?

Green Built Texas is a voluntary partnership of local home builders, industry supporters, and sponsors committed to creating awareness and interest in the construction of higher-performance, lower-impact residential homes in Texas. The program has a construction protocol that Home Builder Association (HBA) members have deemed essential in order for a home to be recognized by the program. Homes built to this protocol conform to higher standards of site management and waste recycling, water efficiency, indoor air quality, energy efficiency, materials, and homeowner education.

Membership in Green Built Texas is open to both Builder and Associate members of the Home Builders Associations in the State of Texas. Through special events and media outreach, the HBA endeavors to make homebuyers more aware of its green building program and its participants. Green Built Texas also provides educational seminars and is affiliated with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) National Green Building Program as its certification processes offer an alternative method to Green Built Texas recognition. A similar agreement with the U.S. Green Building Council enables homes built to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes (LEED-H) protocol to enjoy the same benefit.

GBT is better able to serve its members thanks to the resources offered by these national programs. Meanwhile, the national programs benefit from a vibrant state and local initiative serving as a conduit for certification.

The HBA’s goal is to establish a green building program that is recognized by municipalities and consumers throughout the state. Green Built Texas has also established a program for low and mid-rise multifamily construction and will soon create higher levels of green building achievement that will allow builders to advance their building product to meet both consumer desires and their own business plans.

www.greenbuilttexas.com

Benefits of a Green Built Texas Home-click on this link to view benefits

http://www.greenbuiltnorthtexas.com/benhome.htm

Construction Protocol- Click on this link to view protocol:

http://www.greenbuiltnorthtexas.com/documents/GBNT_ProtocolVersion2_official.pdf

Or is it? There is a lot in the news lately about whether this whole Green Movement is based on a hoax or not.  My take on that as far as Green Building goes is, “What does it matter?”  Sustainable development makes sense all the time, not just because it’s a fad or that its popularity has resulted from government policies and concern about Climate Change.

Building more energy efficient housing saves consumers money through lower utility bills and extends existing energy supplies.  Using re-manufactured products or products from forests with sustainable replenishment policies also extends the life of valuable resources.

Reducing product waste helps extend the life of existing landfills in population centers with growing communities.

So building Green saves money, is smart and contrary to what Kermit says, “It is easy being Green”

Blog Written by:Wesley Scott
wes@archwaysandceilings.com
www.archwaysandceilings.com

When I started working on my blog this week I was looking at "up-cycling" as the focus. I still plan on writing about up-cycling, but I kept coming across facts about E-trash that I found to be a huge and growing problem. With the amount of electronics, cell phones, and computers that we buy every year, a big percentage of these items are ending up in our landfills. Here are some of the facts I found on E-trash:

• In 2007, companies with an enviro-tech focus received $3.95 billion in venture funding, a 38 percent increase over 2006. IT asset recovery (selling refurbished PCs)—is now a $6 billion–a-year business. (TheDailyGreen.com)
• At the 2008 CES, Fujitsu showed a laptop PC whose outside plastic shell is 50 percent vegetable-based polymer alloy. (Fujitsu.com)
• Creation of a desktop PC usually requires ten times the PC's weight in fossil fuels and chemicals, most of them toxic. (BBC News )
• If you're not sure where to donate out-of-use electronics, Recycles.Org can match you up with nonprofit agencies that use old equipment. By 2011, more than 400 million PCs will have been purchased as replacements for current home and office computers. (eBay Rethink, Gartner) Typical U.S. cell-phone users replace their phones every year and a half. (eBay Rethink)
• 130 million cell phones each year go into retirement. (EPA)
• Recycling 100 million phones would recover 3.4 metric tons of gold—gold that would not have to be mined. (EPA )
• PCs contain gold too: 1.2 tons of PC scrap electronics has more than can be extracted from 17 tons of gold ore. (ResourceSaver)
• Only 15 percent of Americans are aware that local recyclers will take old electronics and computers. (eBay Rethink, ACNielsen) Each year, the world generates 20 million to 50 million metric tons of e-waste, according to United Nations Environmental Programme. E-waste makes up 2 percent of solid waste in the U.S. and is the fastest-growing segment of U.S. garbage. (Intercon Solutions )
• Manufacturing one desktop and one monitor requires: 530 pounds of fossil fuel, 58 pounds of chemicals, and 1.5 tons of water. (UN, ResourceSaver)
• Twelve percent (25 million) of Americans would pay extra for greener electronics. On the other hand, 41 percent (90 million) are not willing to pay extra. (Forrester)
• Wii is the power-saving leader of game consoles, consuming only 18.4 watts. Compare the hogs: Xbox (186W), PS3 (199W), and a PC (209W at peak usage). (hardCOREware.net )
• While old CRT monitors use more energy to show white than black, LCDs spend slightly more energy to show black than white. (scientific american)
• Don't recycle, Freecycle: There are 4,226 Freecycle.org online groups helping more than four million users give away "junk" to others who can use it. (Dell)
• 2.05 million tons of electronics were put out as garbage in the U.S. in 2005. Only about 18 percent of that was recycled. (Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition )
• The U.S scraps about 400 million pieces of consumer electronics equipment—e-waste—per year. It's the fastest-growing waste stream. (Electronics TakeBack Coalition) () If you buy a new system, Apple and Dell will recycle your old computer, regardless of manufacturer. (Dell Recycling)
• Search EPEAT.net's Product Registry to find computers and monitors that are certified green. (EPEAT.net)
• It's estimated that as much as 80 percent of U.S. e-waste is shipped overseas or to Mexico to be dismantled in unsafe working conditions. (Electronics TakeBack Coalition)
• To create just 1 kilogram of consumer goods, manufacturers on average create 5 kilograms of waste. (RSC )
• Bamboo is the most sustainable of all materials. Look for laptops encased in it, such as the ASUS Ecobook. (ASUS.com)
• By 2001, e-waste already accounted for 70 percent of the heavy metals and 40 percent of the lead in U.S. landfills. (EPA.gov)
• Take an HP, Lexmark, or Dell printer cartridge to Staples for recycling and you will get a $3coupon for ink or toner. (Staples.com) Energy Star 4.0 is quite stringent, demanding highly efficient power supplies and very-low-power idle modes. (energystar.gov)

If we all could just do our part to recycle or freecycle our old devices we could make a huge impact currently on our landfills and long into the future.

The mineral gypsum has many uses in today’s society.  In addition to the manufacture of drywall for building construction, gypsum is also widely used as a soil amendment, in the production of cement, and as an ingredient in the manufacture of many types of commercial products.  Since the gypsum makes up approximately 90% of the weight of a piece of drywall, if the gypsum can be recovered from the drywall, the majority of the material can be recycled.  Scrap gypsum drywall is currently being recycled in several locations in North America.  Examples include:

• The manufacture of new drywall
• Use as an ingredient in the production of cement
• Application to soils and crops to improve soil drainage and plant growth
• A major ingredient in the production of fertilizer products
• An additive to composting operations

Despite its successful use in many locations, most drywall in North America is still disposed in landfills.  Challenges to widespread recycling include collection and separation, low landfill disposal fees, and the need for more education of potential end users of the recycled material.

More and more markets are putting programs in place to recycle drywall. In DFW area PremRock Drywall Services, has a recycling program for builders or homeowners. They place a container on job site, for drywall only. After installation of drywall, the container is removed from job site, and taken to a recycling yard close to Fort Worth. The recycling yard implements the same examples listed above. The Drywall is weighed, and a ticket is issued, for third party verification. This program helps builders, and home owners that are building a “LEED,” certified project.