Everybody loves a high-tech innovation, and our windows are very high-tech, but have we reached a point where we don't need to push further?

We design a house from the inside out and engineer a house from the top down, but we build a house from the ground up. What are the most environmentally sensitive, durable materials?

[Editor's note: Robert Riversong, a Vermont builder, continues his 10-part series of articles taking design and construction to what he sees as radical or "root" concerns. Enjoy--and please share your thoughts. – Tristan Roberts]

Before you peel that NFRC sticker off the window, check the numbers and ask whether you got the right window for your climate.

Have you ever found yourself picking a sticker off a building product or material from the store, and wondering, why did they put the sticker here? I have often had this thought with everything from stovepipe to plumbing fittings, but the classic example in the building world is probably windows.

The glass part of the window is for looking through, right? Then why does every window manufacturer put two are three large stickers right in that area? Sometimes these come off easily--sometimes they are a real pain to remove. Sometimes they don't come off at all: I have seen window stickers, or remnants of them, still in place years after construction.

The next time you encounter one of those stickers--in your house, on the construction site, or at the showroom, take a close look. The different values that appear on them can mean a world of difference in terms of how those windows will perform in your building.

As more federal buildings target zero energy, leading designers tell us that day-to-day choices make all the difference

Automatically operated shades and a passive transpired solar collector could help bring the NREL research support facility to net-zero energy use--but it takes intentional conservation too. (Photo: Frank Ooms)

If you build it, they will plug. They will plug in drip coffee makers, halogen lamps, personal DVD players, aquariums, space heaters, and maybe even hair dryers. They will leave computers, lights, and printers on all night. How many of them will it take to screw in incandescent light bulbs before we realize that net-zero is not just about design?

A cement floor before treatment with Green Polyurethane.

A new clear floor coating for the commercial and industrial market is being touted as not containing isocyanates, potentially toxic chemicals used in uncured spray polyurethane foams (SPF), clear furniture and floor coatings, and adhesives such as those found in no-added-formaldehyde wood panel products. But it does contain epoxy, made from bisphenol-A. Can an epoxy-based polyurethane truly be "green" as its name attests?

Green Polyurethane from Nanotech Industries International, Inc. is a hybrid polyurethane that uses a proprietary combination of epoxy and polyurethane technologies that, according to the company, creates a surface that has better adhesion, three to four times the corrosion resistance, and 50% more chemical resistance than conventional polyurethanes. And it does so without solvents, VOCs, or the use of isocyanates. Sounds great! Unfortunately, epoxy is made from the endocrine disruptor bisphenol-A (BPA).

Almost every technological "solution" has created a new set of problems which it was assumed would be solved by further advances in technology. How is green building different?

[Editor's note: Robert Riversong, a Vermont builder, continues his 10-part series of articles taking design and construction to what he sees as radical or "root" concerns. Enjoy--and please share your thoughts. – Tristan Roberts]

It has been a great spring so far for spotting wildlife. A neighbor told me he was shooing a black bear away from his garbage the other day when he saw that he had also frightened off a moose that was also in the neighborhood. Perhaps the moose and bear are rehearsing for a new wildlife buddy movie?

I spotted a porcupine crossing the driveway last week. I love that fact that porcupines don't seem to give a damn. I'm sure that they are capable of running, but unlike a lot of animals that run when encountered, porcupines seem to just keep on going wherever they were going, at the same measured pace, with the same loopy sort of lope. When worst comes to worst, they can simply sit there, knowing that only a handful of predators can get around those quills.

A tour of rebuilding in the Ninth Ward of NOLA, with green homes designed by some of the world's leading architects

KieranTimberlake's Special House #9 was one of the first Make It Right homes built. From KT's website: "The basic structure and organization of the house is comparable to the chassis of an automobile fitted with optional components and assemblies that vary the specifics of its function and its appearance."

A highlight of my time in New Orleans for AIA Convention last week was a tour of rebuilding efforts in the Lower Ninth Ward with the staff of BNIM Architects and a few invited guests. BNIM had a large contingent in town to receive their AIA Firm of the Year award, and took the opportunity to show this project to the rest of their team. Bob Berkebile (the “B” in BNIM and an Environmental Building News advisory board member) has been instrumental in these rebuilding efforts since just days after Katrina hit in August 2005.

The IGCC is designed to implement green building on a massive scale--not to replace LEED.

There are many challenges with mandating daylighting within an international code framework. This illustrates one of them: geography plays a huge role in daylighting, but established climate zones do not overlap with daylight availability, so separate zones had to be established.

It's pretty exciting that local and state governments throughout the U.S. are leaping to adopt the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) before the code is even completed. That says a lot.

But as I sat down for Allan Bilka's talk about the code at the AIA Convention last week, one of his first comments said a lot too: "I think we're very far in any of these documents from producing a building that is truly sustainable." Ouch.