Sustainable Homebuilding and Additions

In 1990, I worked as a laborer on my first house. It was small, very well insulated, had a passive solar design, and utilized as a prominent aesthetic and structural feature, over- sized locally harvested oak logs as second floor joists. In the news that year, environmentalists and loggers clashed in California in what became known as Redwood Summer. Simultaneously in the Pacific Northwest, there was a struggle brewing over old growth forests, involving the northern spotted owl. These and other topics relating to sustainability and building were the subject of our lunchtime discussions. It seems like I have been having those conversations ever since.

Since that time, Green has become an industry buzzword and a bandwagon that everyone with something to sell wants to hop on. At Cayuta Creek Carpentry, we are still trying to sort out what is Green and what is not. What is clear to us is that Green is not necessarily black and white.

There are some things that I think we can safely call tenets of green building: build small, insulate well, use locally sourced and recycled materials whenever possible, and site the house using what the landscape has to offer.

Sustainability means different things to different people. We are interested in your take.