How do you build a green building? Let me count the ways.
We've got ASHRAE 189.1, a large and growing handful of LEED rating systems, the Living Building Challenge, Passive House, and many others...and now there's also the International Green Construction Code (IgCC) just published by the International Code Council.
Even water is toxic if you have too much. How do we keep a potentially harmful but necessary nutrient like boric acid at safe levels in our buildings and our bodies?
What do you do about a substance that is a biologically necessary trace nutrient, long considered nontoxic, and in a multitude of products--but that is also now listed on a major European Union chemical hazard list due to evidence that it is toxic for reproduction?
Life-cycle assessment, environmental product declarations, and corporate social responsibility reporting are a great start. But can we talk about health?
Lots of building products offer some help in keeping air, water, and heat in our buildings, but without attention to the joints, you lose critical continuity in your barriers.
This is part of an ongoing series. Read all the Sticky Business posts here.
