Ron Jones, Green Builder Media co-founder and president, says the building industry has to clean up its act. Writing in Green Builder, he notes:
He is right, of course, but there are a couple of problems. The first is his conclusion: “We can do better. We have the knowledge, the tools, the materials, and the technologies. The question is, do we have the will?”
The Knowledge
The first question is, whether most people have the knowledge. I did a quick search of websites, magazines, and contractors on the question “how to reduce heat loss” to see what answers came up and what they recommend first. Almost every single site suggested wall insulation and window replacement as the first things to do. Yet we know from Harold Orr, who virtually invented the Passive House and the chainsaw retrofit, and whose word is gospel to me, about what you do first. He told Mike Henry of The Sustainable Home the biggest problem is air leakage:
Some sites were better than others, with Mike Holmes of Make It Right noting that sealing windows, doors, and gaps is the first thing to do. Only one insulation company that I found, Great Northern Insulation, mentioned the most important thing anyone should do before they start any kind of home improvement: a blower door test.
It is like going to the doctor and they don’t do a blood pressure test. This is where you start, but nobody is interested in simple generic solutions; there is no money in caulking or sealing, the builders and contractors would rather sell new windows and equipment.
The Customer
Then there is the second problem: the customer. They are not interested. A recent survey of 900 households conducted by HomeAdvisor, a site that helps people find trades, found only 8% of homeowners listed improving energy consumption as a top reason for doing home improvements. They write:
But even HomeAdvisor gives bad advice about energy savings, saying “windows typically account for 25% to 30% of your home’s heat loss—installing Energy Star-rated windows with low e-coatings may add 10% to 15% to the upfront cost, but will help you save on your utility bills and may help you qualify for local or federal energy rebates.” Windows are not even close to that high a percentage of heat loss.
As the famous Minnesota Pyramid of Conservation points out, windows are way at the top of the list for complexity and investment; the only thing that gives a worse return on investment are solar panels on the roof. But if people buy green, they want to be seen. This has been called conspicuous conservation.
Industry: The Fox Is in Charge of the Henhouse
Jones writes:
In the U.S., the building codes are mostly written by industry, in an excruciatingly slow process that doesn’t even acknowledge carbon emissions. The International Code Council (ICC), which is not international and doesn’t do much except “model” codes, has been taken over by industry. According to Sarah Baldwin in Smart Cities Dive, the recent code revision cycle was a mess.
So we keep building the same old way, powered by the same old fossil fuels, to the same old miserable standards.
The Will
The level of knowledge in the industry is abysmal. Ask them about embodied carbon and they will never have heard of it. Ask a mechanical contractor about mean radiant temperature and they will stare at you blankly. Ask the North American supplier for Passive House quality windows and they will cost twice as much and take a year to get. Ask a client what they want and they will tell you quartz countertops. Ask the authorities about tougher codes and they will shrug.
This is where I think Jones is wrong in his concluding statement. We don’t have strong building codes because of “affordability.” We don’t have the knowledge, tools, materials, or technologies. And we certainly don’t appear to have the will.
