Serving the entire greater Tampa Bay area.  Please visit www.CharterBayHomes.com after reading our blog.

Over the next several months, we will be writing a series of blogs called “Tampa Bay Green Building”, which will  discuss some of the components to consider when building a green home, or when remodeling an existing home with new green features.  As builders in the greater Tampa Bay area we are going to focus on the standards set by the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC).  There are several organizations focused on green building, but in our opinion none are as relevant for our clients as FGBC due to our unique climate and other factors here in Florida, which the FGBC directly addresses.

In this first blog in the series we are going to discuss briefly about how a home becomes green certified through the FGBC.  In the blogs that follow, we will go into more detail on each of the eight individual component that makes up the overall certification so you can make informed choices that match your needs, goals, and budget.

So how does a home or remodel become a FGBC certified green home?  It starts from the very beginning in the design process.  That is an important point.  It would be very hard to have a home certified if you did not start with the end in mind.  There are four levels of certification for Green Homes:  Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.  The scoring to reach the different levels is based on a points system broken down into eight categories:

  • Energy
  • Water
  • Lot Choice
  • Site
  • Health
  • Materials
  • Disaster Mitigation
  • General items

These are the categories we are going to address individually in more detail in this series.

There is a lot to consider, but keep this important point in mind, you don’t have to have a home green certified, or do all of the things involved in each category, to enjoy the benefits of planning your project with green in mind.  It all depends on what is important to you, and you should never feel compelled to do anything in your home that is not important to you.

Maybe you have small children and want to make sure you do things to better the air quality of your home.  Or, are you more concerned with the energy efficiency portion of the process and want to focus on the return on your investment and savings on your utility bills?  Or you may want to ensure that your building project has the least amount of impact on the environment as possible, whether it be by protecting the environment on your homesite during construction, or choosing sustainable building products?  Or, maybe you want all those things!

In the next blog we are going to cover the first, and some would argue the most important, component of green building – Energy.


 

 

Did you know there is an actual term called “Greenwashing”?  It is a term used to describe the practice of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly.  Today, it seems as though everything is being touted as being “green”.  Of course, we know that isn’t the case so your best weapon against greenwashing is simple common sense.  When that doesn’t work, visit the Green Washing Index Website to see if they can help.


Charter Bay Home Builders, , is a custom home building and remodeling contractor committed to having the knowledge necessary to help our clients get what they want out of their building project.  We work throughout the Tampa Bay area including, Pinellas, Lakeland (Polk), Pasco, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, and   Sarasota.  As a green certified builder (FGBC Certifying Agent & NAHB Certified Green Building Professional), Charter Bay can offer any level of “green” desired based on any budget.  Visit our website, www.CharterBayHomes.com , today to learn how “The Charter Bay Way” delivers our customers:

 

“Yesterday’s Values • Today’s Technology • Tomorrow’s Vision”