Starting in March 2008 those of us who wish to remodel, rehab, or gut either part or our entire existing homes now have a program and guidelines to help us make them as green as possible. New construction has the LEED program to help guide and find products needed to make them green. Now the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Foundation have developed the REGREEN program and guidelines.
REGREEN is a collection of resources and tools that are designed to help make your home remodeling project turn your home green. These guidelines are for residential home renovation that can be as simple as replacing an appliance, like a dishwasher, to redoing the bathroom, to remodeling your entire interior living space. The major elements of any project in remodeling are addressed. These include such things as the actual home site, water efficiency, material/resources, energy, atmosphere, and the quality of your indoor environment. These guidelines seek to integrate building systems and proven technologies into green strategies and case studies for homeowners, builders and design professionals. These guidelines are for even u do-it-yourself types. Though knowing them is also great if you are seeking professional help in either the design or building part of your project. Since this then enables you to have a reference to how what you want and to make sure it;s what is planned or done.
REGREEN has organized it’s guidelines by the 10 most common remodeling project types and are divided into three distinct areas. These areas are:
- remodeling projects described by scope, integrated pre-design issues, and environmental strategies for each of the home’s systems, including plumbing, HVAC and electrical workings;
- a library of strategies by environmental topic;
- case studies of successful green home renovations.
To get the guidelines or lean more you can visit REGREEN at www.regreenprogram.org