The ultimate validation for an eco-friendly building project is to achieve LEED certification (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design). It was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and is internationally recognized (in fact, their next GREENBUILD international conference will take place in Toronto in October 2011).

LEED Certification

LEED certification standards measure things such as: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

Achieving this level of certification is a strenuous process, but there is plenty of help, including Canada’s own Green Building Council.

Whether you’re building a new home from scratch or just greening your your home one piece at a time, there are plenty of options that are available these days. We’ll be exploring some of these in a series of blog posts.

Green Roofing with Enviroshake

For our EcoInhabit building projects, we use Enviroshake, an innovative product from a company in Chatham, Ontario. This is a premium roofing product that looks like cedar but is far superior in longevity, looks and safety, and doesn’t require any preservatives or treatments. It is also made from 95% reprocessed materials and is entirely recyclable (so any scraps leftover after your project are re-purposed for another roofing project).

Beyond green building materials, some homeowners choose to create an actual green, living roof. Green roofs are made from various types of vegetation, including moss, herbs, grass, shrubs, flowers or even trees.

Living roofs provide many environmental benefits, including:

• Improved air quality
• Reduced storm water run off
• Improved sound insulation
• Energy conservation
• Improved health for both people and wildlife

To learn more, please visit http://livingroofs.org.

We’ll take a look at straw houses and other green building materials in our next posts, so stay tuned!