By Michael Watt
In the late 1990s, I worked for an Internet company and made the Long Island rounds trying to convince people to embrace this thing called the World Wide Web. When I spoke to business groups I’d ask, “How many of you consider yourselves Internet savvy?” and a smattering of hands would go up.
Then I’d ask, “How many of you consider yourselves NOT Internet savvy?” and even more hands would go up.
Finally I’d ask, “How many of you wish the Internet would go away?” and almost all of the hands would go up.
Here it is 10 years later and it looks as if the Internet is here to stay. In the meanwhile, “building green” is the latest business trend threatening to drive everyone crazy (the cratering economy notwithstanding). Green seminars, green expos and green trade shows abound, so much so that it’s just a matter of time before Shecky Greene makes a comeback.
Green means different things to different people. For some, it means nothing more than re-using a cup and drinking tap water instead of reaching for the bottled water. For others, like Fred Mittmann of the Energy Wise Distributors of L.I. LLC in East Hampton, it means building a “zero-energy” house in Montauk. Mittmann is also a co-chair of the Long Island Builders Institute’s Green LI Homes Council.
The Council was created last month. John Barrows, a “green” home builder (J. Barrows Inc. in Wainscott), is its president. “LIBI builders develop and disseminate standards such as Energy Star for local builders,” Barrows says. “So the creation of this Council represents a natural progression in providing education and information for local governments, builders, and the public.”
Barrows runs the Council with builders Cliff Fetner of Jaco Custom Builders in Hauppauge and the aforementioned Mittmann. The Council meets monthly to explore developments in green home building as well as ways to educate the public regarding the technologies and building practices that result in energy-efficient, healthier and environmentally sustainable buildings.
The hottest topic at the Green Council’s most recent meeting? The “National Green Building Standard” recently approved by American National Standards Institute (ANSI), making it the first and only ANSI-approved green building rating system and therefore the benchmark for building green homes.
“It’s all coming together,” Barrows said of efforts to be more sensitive to environmental issues when building homes. “Energy efficient homes are more valuable and, ironically, more affordable. When you can build energy-efficient homes and surround them with open spaces—like a lot of our guys are doing—you create a housing situation that everyone can live with.”
The Green LI Homes Council also plans to provide helpful “green-related” information for the public. “Lots of people have a desire to either ‘build green’ or refurbish or remodel their homes in a ‘green fashion,’” Barrows says. “The trick is to make sure the information they need is readily available in simple terms.”
How does Barrows and company plan to accomplish that? You guessed it: The Internet.