To Be or Not to Be Green?
by Linda Sechrist

   While green may not be the hottest hue in color trends for your home this season, it will always be the first word to roll off the tongue of interior designers who specialize in green interiors for residential design.
   But if green simply isn’t your color and the cash you carry in your wallet more than satiates your minimal appreciation for the shade that dominates our sub-tropical landscape, why would you ever choose to incorporate green building practices into your home?
   According to the Florida Green Building Coalition, green building practices not only enhance the profitability of resale but also the home’s indoor air quality. Not to be overlooked is the affordability of operation costs that are frequently improved with green building features such as 15 SEER air HVAC systems, tinted windows, and a spray-in-place under the roof insulation. An energy-efficient home is a good invest-ment because utility costs are never going to decrease.
   In 2003, Steve and Michael Peel, owners of Gulfstream Homes, began integrating green features such as 15 SEER HVAC systems, Energy Star kitchen appliances and water heaters, borate-treated lumber, low VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints and carpets into the company’s building standards. Prior to the implementation, a green building expert trained the entire staff so that they could knowledgeably inform homebuyers about the benefits. Steve Peel’s observation of the lack of green building awareness in the marketplace led the company to film an informative seven-minute video for viewing on the company’s Web site (www.gulfstreamhomes.com/green.php).
   A newfound awareness of the concept of green building led Tim Rose, president of Lyons Housing Corporation, an independent Arthur Rutenberg franchise, to inquire about building-integrated solar roof tiles after reading about them in a trade publication. Rose had 33 photovoltaic solar tiles installed on a model.
   The first to be installed in Florida, the tile system covers more than 80 percent of the garage roof. Dimensionally the same as concrete roof tiles, the building-integrated tiles interlock seamlessly with regular roof tiles and are capable of producing up to 20 percent of the homes’ electricity needs. For immediate household usage, tiles produce DC energy that converts to AC electricity.
   For the past 23 years, Bernadette Upton, ASID, immediate past president of ASID South Florida Chapter, has remained enthusiastic about designing healthy home environments. Her vision for a green interior is something she sees as an excellent investment in the home and in the people who live there. From experience, Upton knows that when the general public is more educated on the benefits of green interiors and collectively raises its expectation levels for more healthy public and home environments, then things will change more rapidly.
   Natural interior environments are more exciting and dynamic today than ever and they exude a sense of beauty that is not superficial. Choosing a healthy natural environment for yourself and your family is like dropping a pebble into a pond. The benefits ripple out way beyond you, your home and your community. “It’s planetary, and the only right thing to do is to sustain that which sustains us,” concludes Upton.
   If Shakespeare were alive today, perhaps his prose might pose, “to be green or not to be green” for as naturally as the night follows the day, choosing greening principles would mean being true to all that sustains them and us, our beautiful planet with all its miraculous but, unfortunately, limited resources.