11.1 The sustainable city  (Page 7/20)

Buildings&Neighborhoods

Americans have come a long way from the pioneer one room log cabin and crowded immigrant tenement. The average American house size has more than doubled since the 1950s and now stands at 2,349 square feet. ^{Margot Adler , NPR, Behind the Ever-Expanding American Dream House, (External Link) , accessed 4/25/11} Sustainability will probably mean more efficient use of smaller homes, and McMansions might become multi-family dwellings, putting pressure on local ordinances and home association rules.

Lincoln institute of Land Policy, April 26, 2100, http://www.lincolninst.edu/news/atlincolnhouse.asp , accessed 4/27/11 quoting Arthur C. Chris Nelson, University of Utah

Second (&third) homes? The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University showed a dramatic rise in vacation homes, from 3.1 million such units in the 1990 Census to over 6 million in the Housing Vacancy Survey ten years later.

Zhu Xiao Di, Nancy McArdle and George S. Masnick, Second Homes: What, How Many, Where and Who, February 2001, (External Link) , accessed 4/25/11

If we want to equitably share the world’s resources with emerging markets we’ll have to figure out how to manage this desire to spend time in more than one place in a more conservative manner. Time-sharing addresses this need, as does the (still) growing hotel and vacation resort industry.

Homes use about 23% of all energy in the United States.

http://energyfuture.wikidot.com/us-energy-use , accessed 4/25/11

In the future many of our homes will generate their own power (See Case Study: A Net-Zero Energy Home in Urbana, Illinois ). Today ultra-efficient homes combine state-of-the-art, energy-efficient construction and appliances with commercially available renewable energy systems, such as solar water heating and solar electricity, so that the net energy use is zero or even less than zero (positive energy production).

http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/designing_remodeling/index.cfm/mytopic=10360 , accessed 4/25/11

There have been efforts since the 70’s oil crisis to promote (mandatory) energy codes, but voluntary efforts such as Energy Star and LEED are the ones that have made substantial headway.

LEED

http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19 , accessed 4/28/11

– Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a voluntary effort by the U.S. Green Building Council

http://www.usgbc.org/ , accessed 4/28/11

, includes more than energy and also gives points for site, water, materials and resources, and indoor air quality. LEED in particular and sustainable construction in general have found widespread acceptance as even the National Association of Homebuilders has rolled out its own version of green construction

see http://www.nahb.org/publication_details.aspx?publicationID=3887

. Since its inception in 1998, the U.S. Green Building Council has grown to encompass more than 10,000 projects in the United States and 117 countries covering 8 billion square feet of construction space and in April, 2011 LEED certified its 10,000 ^th home in its LEED for Homes program

http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/News/LEED%20for%20Homes%2010k%20milestone_April%202011.pdf , accessed 4/28/11

. The U.S government’s General Services Administration (GSA), the part of the federal government that builds and manages federal space, currently requires LEED Gold certification for all of its new buildings (up from Silver).

http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104462 , accessed 4/28/11

In addition to using fewer resources sustainable buildings reduce absenteeism, improve employee morale, and lead to improved educational performance.

See http://www.greenguard.org/Libraries/GG_Documents/Reformat_GreenHightPerformanceSchools_FINAL_1.sflb.ashx , accessed 4/20/11