Breaking news! Seattle homeowner Wendy Jans has certified her new custom Lindal home under the National Association of Homebuilders’ National Green Building Standard.
Working with her dealer, Tom Schuch of Seattle Cedar Homes, and a verifier from Green Dog Enterprises, her home was able to earn certification from the NAHB, as well as by the government-backed ENERGY STAR® Homes program and by Built Green®, a non-profit program of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties. Professional salvager Olympia Salvage partnered with expert green builders of MC Construction to deconstruct her old home and recycle or re-use all of the material in her new custom Lindal home.
You’ve probably heard the term before, which describes products and companies touting themselves as “green” and “non-toxic” and “environmentally friendly” in order to grab the attention of consumers who want to go green, but haven’t educated themselves on what it really means.
I read this article in TIME magazine (yes, the same magazine that recognized Lindal Cedar Homes in their May 2009 Green Design 100), outlining the efforts of world governments to regulate and control false and misleading claims by companies. Much like the way “low-calorie” was touted in the health-conscious ’90′s, countries are now taking steps to make it easier for citizens to make smart, green decisions – not knee-jerk reactions to marketing claims.
How does this relate to Lindal? you ask… Well, it’s hard to make an apples-to-apples comparison between custom housing and household cleaners, but the very fact that you are reading this obviously means that you want to educate yourself on what being green really means. Here at Lindal, our goal is to make it easy to be green. (Are you listening, Kermit T. Frog?)
The National Association of Home Builders has developed the National Green Building Program. It is similar to LEED, but allows for “levels” (or shades) of green that you can incorporate into your new home. The main reason for Lindal being chosen as the first systems-built home manufacturer in this program is because we can supply you, with little effort on your part, with the minimum requirements to build a NAHB-certified Bronze level green home.
Obviously, you will need to make your own decisions on the type of clothes washer, water heater and floor finishing products (among other things) that will ultimately be placed in your green home, but it sure helps to know that, with a Lindal home, you are starting with a home that is, quite literally, “green from the ground up.” And, with the help of your NAHB Certified Green Professional Lindal dealer, your new home can easily achieve the NAHB’s Silver or Gold status.
After a successful Dwell on Design LA ’09, it’s time to regroup and take a look at some of the other fabulous green home design initiatives that have been brewing this year here at Lindal.
“Dwell and Lindal Cedar Homes have tapped Joel Turkel of Turkel Designs, a veteran prefab architect, to design three new architectural designs that will be manufactured through the partnership with Lindal Cedar Homes known for their experience building environmentally responsive houses of natural materials. The Lindal/Turkel design team will also offer clients a custom home option in the Dwell Homes spirit.The partnership between Lindal and Turkelhas already won them accolades as one of the 2009 Design 100, thebest designed green products by Time Magazine (May 2009).” (Excerpted from DWELL press release.)
In February, Lindal Cedar Homes became the first green systems builder approved by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) as part of their National Green Building Program:
“Green building has arrived, and Lindal is clearly prepared to embrace it. Over the decades, Sir Walter Lindal’s leadership in this direction has been clear. He is an industry pioneer who has set a deliberate path in energy- and resource efficiency—the fruits of which are becoming more and more apparent today.” - Joel Robson, chairman of NAHB.
As part of this recognition, over 80% of Lindal dealers have become NAHB Certified Green Professionals after completing an intensive 5-day course on green design and construction. Interesting to note is that much of the material covered in the courses was already part of Lindal’s comprehensive and ongoing dealer training program, such as the importance of siting a home properly on the land, not just so the house has the best view, but also to take advantage of the natural features that will allow for passive solar gain in the the winter, use of the prevailing winds to help cool the home in the summer, and to minimize disturbance of the site during construction.
In conjunction with these partnerships, we released a new “mini” planning booklet, called The Lindal Experience 2009. It contains 9 new home plans, including those in the DWELL Homes collection, as well as details about our partnerships with the NAHB and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (WFHM). In addressing the difficulties that some people face when trying to finance a custom home, our partnership with WFHM makes it easy for our customers to secure financing with a mortgage lender that understands the Lindal process and building system.
In May, TIME magazine released their annual Green Design 100, recognizing Lindal’s DWELL Homes Collection plans in the “Architecture” category, under the heading “Sustainable Luxury” - Lindal being the only residential architecture firm with product available to the general public.
It’s great to be recognized by these prominent organizations. Even with this recognition, however, one of the questions that was asked several times during the Dwell on Design show was “What makes Lindal ‘green’?” As I mentioned above, one of the most important, yet often overlooked, aspects of green home design is proper siting of the home on your building lot. But with Lindal it goes beyond that. Being a pre-engineered, pre-cut building package of architectural-grade materials that is delivered to your building site, there is far less waste than with conventional stick-built homes. Our customers often remark on the fact that they “barely filled a dumpster during construction of our 2400-square-foot home!” Also, the Lindal building system, utilizing post-and-beam construction, allows for large, open spaces that facilitate air circulation, and can also reduce the surface area of the home which in turn reduces the amount of building materials.
Lindal is also commited to the sustainability of our building materials and, in the name of each of our homeowners, has planted enough trees through the Global ReLeaf program to replace those used to construct our homes.
Finally, I just want to give a shout out to the following blogs for their coverage of sustainable “green” products, and recognition of good design, including Lindal Cedar Homes! (Links open in a new window):
The word is out! Lindal is leading the pack when it comes to sustainable, environmentally-friendly green building practices. With over a dozen Turkel plans in the planning stages, and several scheduled for delivery this summer, I have it on good authority that the first open house for a Turkel-designed Lindal home in Washington state is just around the corner! Subscribe to updates via email or RSS feed, and you’ll be the first to know when and where…
Last weekend’s Dwell show was a huge success, with over 12,000 attendees over the course of 3 days. Our booth was near the back in the CB2 Outdoor Café, which was where all of the “outdoor” products were gathered: sheds, patio furniture, houses, landscaping, even barbeques. Across from our booth was a gleaming Airstream trailer, which I think would match nicely with the steel accents siding on the Lindal TD3 2100 plan!
The TD3 2100 - Can you see this with the matching Airstream out front?
The response to Lindal’s Turkel plans was overwhelmingly positive. We had over 700 people pick up an invitation to the next live webinars by Joel Turkel this summer, and several people met at length with our dealers at the booth. Speaking of which… a big thank you to area dealers Gary Myers of Santa Barbara Cedar Homes, Frank Vingiano of San Diego Custom Homes, and Dennis Sanford of Rainbow Valley Cedar Homes for taking three long days away from their offices and staffing the booth! I think they’ll agree that the response was overwhelmingly positive!
Over the past several months, there has been a huge amount of interest in the new, modern home designs created for Lindal Cedar Homes by Turkel Designs. After our ad in dwell magazine, where we announced the new TD3 series home plans and their inclusion in the 2009 Dwell Homes Collection, it became apparent that we had touched a nerve in the “warm, modern” home designs category, and the inquiries have been flooding in.
At home in the modern world: TD3 2400 by Turkel Designs for Lindal Cedar Homes and inclusion in the Dwell Homes Collection
What does this have to do with Dwell on Design ’09? Well, it is the official launch of this year’s Dwell Homes Collection, and Lindal Cedar Homes is going to be there! Together with Marmol Radziner Prefab, Lindal is honored to be chosen for this elite collection of modern home designs, with exposure to a devoted following of modern-design-loving dwell magazine readers.
Dwell on Design ’09 LA:
Modern Design Convention Details
Date: June 26-28, 2009 Location: Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown LA
More details and online registration at www.dwellondesign.com
I will be attending the show, and plan to update this blog regularly with each day’s happenings. Stay tuned! Or better yet, subscribe for updates by email or RSS feed using the tool in the top right corner of every page of this blog…
Lindal Cedar Homes is the world's largest manufacturer of quality custom cedar homes. We are known around the world for our signature post and beam building system, quality building materials and detailed craftsmanship.
In February, Lindal Cedar Homes became the first green systems builder approved by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) as part of their National Green Building Program:
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Filed under Events,Green Building by Trina Lindal on July 8, 2009