Green Home Buildings ... Why The Europeans are Far Ahead | Advancements In Green Home Buildings ... Lessons From Europe | Green Home Buildings and the European Contribution | Is the US Catching Up to Europe in Building Green Homes? | Europe Vs The States
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by: hugatree | Total views: 83 | Word Count: 449
The Green home building initiative has its genesis in the Green Movement, which was in its heyday in the 1960s, especially among the Hippies. Thereafter, the Green movement evolved differently in the United States and Europe. The political authority of the green movement gained significantly with the institution of the German Green Party in 1970s. Many more Green political parties came into being notably in Europe and thus an institutional approach to the green movement was in place in Europe. Many of these Green parties formed part of coalition governments in Europe thus giving governmental support to green initiatives quite early on. The German government passed the green legislation tax, one of the first green initiatives in the world.
No such legislative activity took place in the States. The Green movement in the nation has continued as an informal initiative with hardly any federal backing. During the early years, building green homes was significantly more expensive than normal homes. American construction companies, sans the governmental pressures faced by their European counterparts, sought only to augment their profits rather than build green.
One of the popular movements in Europe that has persisted over 30 years is termed Building Biology, and opines that traditional brick and mortar buildings with its ingredients of steel, concrete, plastic foams are unhealthy; it also recommends that naturally occurring local building materials are a better choice. Consequently, over the years, Europeans have been building walls with the help of loam. For insulation, recycled newspaper is a prudent choice. Till very recently, Americans considered used bathing water as waste water; instead this is an invaluable resource to be used for landscaping. The LEED norms in vogue in the United States are not legal regulations yet. One may look at the French initiative, to implement its local building green norms in the European Union, as a positive influence on the State.
For ages, Americans have built their houses with wood, a cheap and plentiful commodity. The swift expansion of the US construction industry raised import of wood and consequently the loss of substantial tropical rainforest areas. The US building industry continued to look for profits and overlooked any environmental concerns. The Europeans on the other had very early on understood the likely adverse impact on the environment and commenced forest plantation in their own countries as also using bamboo and other quick growing woods instead of tropical rainforest woods. Wonder why Europe has maintained an ample lead over the United States in building green.
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