Your Green Home: A Guide to Planning a Healthy, Environmentally Friendly New Home

More and more homeowners today want houses that are healthy to live in and cause minimal damage to the environment. That's what green building is all about. "Your Green Home" is written for homeowners planning a new home-whether you are working with an architect or builder, or serving as your own general contractor. Intended to improve the overall environmental performance of new houses being built, the book sets out to answer some of the big-picture questions relating to having a home designed and built-and getting what you want. "Your Green Home" covers: Home location and its relationship to the community Site design Construction systems Building design to optimize energy performance Renewable energy systems Material selection Indoor environmental quality Water efficiency Material selection Written by the founder of BuildingGreen-North America's premier green building authority-this book will prove useful not only to future homeowners, but also to designers and builders seeking to meet this demand. Building professionals well-versed in green building may find this a useful book to give to potential clients to convey the scope and principles of green building. Alex Wilson is president of BuildingGreen, Inc. and executive editor of "Environmental Building News," the oldest and most respected publication serving North America's green building industry. A green building expert since the 1970s, he has authored countless articles on the topic and several books, including "Green Building Products," the "Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings," and "Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate."