We had a Green Building inspection. I wish that I could have been there, but I wasn’t. Apparently he explained some of the requirements that were on my “GB” plan sheet (i.e. water fixture flow rates, low/no VOC materials etc). I signed this GB sheet prior to submitting for building permit application, but didn’t really understand the requirements at the time. These requirements vary for each project. We were classified as “Tier 1”, apparently because we are adding/remodeling >1000 sq ft (I don’t know how they did their math, our plans show a much smaller area). One part of this means that we have to prove that *10% of our building materials come from recycled materials.
I am conflicted on my discussion for this post. I want to love that the city is encouraging green building practices… but I am also frustrated because it is hard to figure out how to meet the requirement. The actual code details that they reference on our Green Building sheet are listed here. Interestingly they are listed as voluntary by the state of California, but I guess Palo Alto has opted to make them required.
This is an great concept and I love making green choices… the thing is… I don’t know where to find these materials! The city gives a nice spreadsheet (RCV Table 1 at the bottom of this page) for documenting and calculating your materials to make sure you reach this 10% threshold, but they don’t have ANY resources for what types of materials or what vendors you might source these materials from! I spent a few hours online and found a few options:
I think carpet, flooring underlayment and insulation are a no brainer. I am interested in the countertops and will likely give it a try, but honestly a little skeptical about durability. Tile is an option, but many of the choices are A LOT (10-50X) more expensive than what I was planning on and there are not many choices. We already have half the roof covered in composite shingles so don’t really want to redo it all and we were hoping to match the oak wood floors in the rest of the house. We may have to find a couple other options to get to that 10%.
The thing I find interesting is… hardwood flooring is technically renewable and lasts 100 years! Recycled manufactured flooring is great, but only lasts 15-20 years. I sort of feel like choosing a material with really long lasting durability is worth something from an environmental standpoint too. It is also interesting that they don’t give you credit for reused products. There are reuse centers around the Pennisula where you can purchase donated home improvement products and building materials. Quality can be low and sure, many options might not be desirable or on trend, but I do find it funny that the Green Building policy doesn’t acknowledge that it is actually much better for the environment to re-purpose a donated cabinet or light fixture in lieu of purchasing a new one made of 50% recycled particle board or plastic.
*Note: Important to keep in mind that they only count the cost of the portion of the material that is recycled (see details here). So if I spend $1000 on carpet made of 50% recycled material, I only get to count $500 for that towards my threshold. It get’s even more complicated as you have to account for pre-consumer (or post-manufacturing) and post-consumer recycled materials. You only get 50% of the credit for pre-consumer recycled material so you really have to read the spec sheets. So if the $1000 carpet I bought above was made of factory scraps from other carpets that never left the factory (i.e. pre-consumer recycled content), I might end up only getting to count $250 towards my quota.
Palo Alto Homemaker 