Peter Yost is the Residential Program Manager for BuildingGreen, LLC in Brattleboro, Vermont. He has been building, researching, teaching, writing, and consulting on high performance homes for more than twenty years. His expertise stretches from construction waste management and advanced framing to energy efficiency and building durability. Peter has made significant contributions to the work of many leading homebuilding organizations and initiatives — NAHB Researcher Center, Building Science Corporation, 3-D Building Solutions, EEBA, Masco's Environments for Living program, USGBC's LEED for Homes program, and the US Department of Energy's Building America program. Peter is currently an instructor for the Boston Architectural College's Sustainable Design Certificate program and for the University of Massachusetts Department of Building Materials and Wood Technology program in Amherst. He is a past co-chair and current Materials and Resources Technical Advisory Steering Committee member of the USGBC's LEED for Homes program.
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Recent Entries by this Author
Ever since the premier of USGBC's two-day REGREEN workshop in Phoenix, AZ at Greenbuild last November, Annette, Rob, and I have been gearing up for a slew of green remodeling workshops across the country -- the REGREEN Roadshow. The REGREEN workshops are a lot of fun to teach (and take) for two reasons: one, the blend of builder/remodeler with interior design perspectives is completely refreshing; and two, the substantial and substantive group work woven into the workshop makes for an energetic and invigorating approach.
Now you might be saying to yourself: What? Interior designers and hard-core building science-builder types making sweet music together? You would be surprised at how well these perspectives can inform each other. Here is just one example:
Your clients TELL you they want new replacement windows. But what they actually want is to keep the way their windows currently look, not spend too much, and get real performance improvements (in terms of energy efficiency, thermal comfort, and daylighting -- without overheating during the summer). Whew. So you sit down with an interior designer, and all of the sudden you need to compare about a dozen options -- sash replacements, window films, cellular shades, awnings, shutters -- all with real (but different) advantages. What started as a rather simple choice ends up to be quite a puzzle, based on a weaving of sometimes competing aspects: energy efficiency, lighting, views, privacy, cost, comfort, even noise. It's just as much about interior design as it is hard-core remodeling.
By Peter Yost and Allyson Wendt, posted live from Greenbuild.
It's common knowledge that green building is anything but affordable. Or is it? You would have had a pretty hard time convincing the 100 or so folks at the USGBC's Affordable Housing Summit. They are convinced that green is actually affordable, both in terms of investment and operations budgets.
Heather Clark — from one of the largest property owners of housing in the U.S., Winn Development — stated that water efficiency improvements alone in 76 of their properties cost only $376,000 and saved them over $1.2 M in the first year! In this case, they were paying the water bills, but even if the retrofits had benefited the tenants directly, saving money is still saving money. And saving water is saving water.
I (Peter) have to confess that if I hear the term net present value one more time in the context of green building, I may pass out.
 Amy Levin and friends photo: Heidi Glenn, NPR |
The best way to learn more overall about this amazing project is to hear the story that recently aired on NPR's All Things Considered.
But BuildingGreen LIVE decided to talk a bit more with Amy Levin to learn just how and why a realtor took such a deep plunge into the world of green building.
Coming from a family of realtors, Amy has been involved in housing, property improvement, and property investment most of her life. But about two years ago, she became convinced that building green presented a real opportunity — that building green can pay builders back, even though there may be some additional up-front cost, because the public is willing to pay for the small premium. She set off looking for an existing property to prove it.
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