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Setting the trend for Wisconsin homes
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| Coordinating volunteer contractors and suppliers
is a difficult part of completing the Wisconsin Trend Home. Organizers
are filming the construction process, though, for an educational DVD. Photos submitted by the Metropolitan Builders Association |
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The Wisconsin Builders Foundation and the Metropolitan Builders Association joined together to build the Wisconsin Trend Home, a showcase for energy efficiency, in Waukesha.
Sustainable features built into the home include:
• using gray water captured from showers
• reusing storm-water runoff for landscaping
• solar panels
• a solar-powered water heater
Organizers plan to sell the home, which was built largely with donated time and materials from area companies. Proceeds from the sale could generate up to $200,000 for La Casa de Esperanza, a Waukesha nonprofit that serves Latinos, with any additional money going to the Wisconsin Builders Foundation.
Pattie Stone, government affairs associate for the MBA, said the home is due to be finished in mid-July and will open to the public for tours in August or September.
Terms of the home sale will include letting builders check the home’s green amenities next year.
“The home showcases all the new advances in residential construction,” Stone said. “These are things that will be standard in 2020.”
— Janine Anderson
Looking back: Once innovative green methods are common today
Green building techniques seem like second nature to many in the construction industry today. But when Oscar J. Boldt started to erect Wisconsin’s first certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design health-care facility, sustainability still felt relatively new to some.
Blaine Tuchscherer, a senior project manager with Boldt, said he spent much of his time teaching green to others on the project.
“Nowadays, people are very aware,” he said of green building techniques. “But when we were doing this … it was a little bit of education for our suppliers and contractors.”
• a storm-water retention pond
• special filters to maintain air quality
• recycled blue jeans used for insulation
• locally purchased construction materials
• recycling of 64 percent of all construction waste
“What I gained from this project was the familiarity with how you achieve sustainability,” Tuchscherer said. “If you focus on sustainable objectives right from the beginning of design, other sustainability things will fall into place.”
Sustaining national attention
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| Photo by Mark F. Heffron |
A Wisconsin firm garnered national recognition for its green efforts.
The American Institute of Architects and its Committee on the Environment named The Kubala Washatko Architects Inc., Cedarburg, a recipient of the Top Ten Green Projects Award for the design of The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center in Baraboo.
The award recognizes outstanding examples of sustainable architecture throughout the United States.
The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center, completed in spring 2007, is carbon neutral in operation and uses as building materials wood harvested from trees originally planted by the Aldo Leopold family in the 1930s and 1940s. Kubala Washatko designed the center to produce more than 110 percent of annual building energy needs through the use of solar photovoltaic panels.
In October, the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center will be honored by the U.S. Green Building Council for achieving the highest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification of any building in the world.
Other awards for the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center include the 2008 Canadian Wood Council Wood Design Award and Wisconsin Builder’s Top Project of 2007.
Custer’s renewable energy stand
Anyone interested in learning more about renewable energy might discover that Custer is the place to go this summer.
The Midwest Renewable Energy Association plans to host its 19th annual Energy Fair from June 20 through June 22 at the association’s headquarters at the ReNew the Earth Institute in Custer.
For the past 18 years, the MREA transformed Custer, a rural community about 8 miles east of Stevens Point, into a global hot spot for renewable energy education.
The Energy Fair features hundreds of workshops and exhibits emphasizing clean energy and sustainable living.
This year, plans for the fair include a clean-energy car show with exhibits, workshops and demonstration vehicles as well as a green home pavilion that educates fairgoers on different strategies to make houses energy efficient and carbon neutral.
The Energy Fair earned certification as a green tourist event by Travel Green Wisconsin for the following best practices:
• All food is served on reusable or biodegradable plates, and food
waste is composted.
• The shower house for guests is heated by a solar water-heating
system.
• Carpooling is encouraged through a rideshare program.
• Organic, local and fair trade products will be available for purchase.
For more information about the event visit Midwest Renewable Energy Association’s Web site at www.the-mrea.org or call Amy Heart, MREA programs director, at 715-592-6595, Ext. 20.