With a growing army of architects giving green designs to commercial spaces, who’s going to guide individuals into environmentally friendly habitats when they go home from work?
At least two Pennsylvanians–Avrim and Vicki Topel of Kennett Square in Southeastern Pennsylvania–are going to try. They’ve written a book that explores the design of a sustainable homestead as both a blessing for the environment and a life-changing personal event. In it, they tell how they studied the “how-to’s” and “what for’s” of building a green home and then built it–and topped off the experience by writing a book to show others how to follow in their path.
They are also starting a consulting practice to spread the word.
Their book–Green Beginnings: the Story of How We Built our Green and Sustainable Home–is a first time how-to that lays out the path for interpreting the criteria for LEED Silver Certification of the U.S. Green Building Council from the perspective of homeowners who’ve actually gone through the entire experience of discovering what’s involved.
Said to be the first book of its kind to present both a homeowners’ perspective on both the decision making process and homebuilding experience, Green Beginnings employs an informal and easy to follow style–as though the reader is paying a visit to the authors in their home after its completion. At the same time, they provide lots of practical advice on selecting architects and builders while using many color photographs to illustrate the progress of the project.
Not so long ago, the prospect of living in a sustainable home was something only a few environmental gurus were able to commit themselves to do. The basic message of the Topels would seem to be that designing, building and living in a green home is not only for energy efficiency experts like Amory Lovins anymore.
Source: World-Wire, Avrim and Vicki Topel
Writer: Joseph Plummer
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