John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... Last week, I blogged on my meeting with architect Michelle Kaufmann’s sustainable housing community she designed for Susan Powers at the Marycrest Convent Campus.
At one point, we were discussing green, sustainable futures at homes. For example, at the Casa Chiara community, being developed by Powers’ Urban Ventures, they are installing windows that basically run from the floor to the ceiling, and are strategically placed to best use the sun.
“The idea is that you shouldn’t have to turn on your lights during the day,” because of the natural sunlight, Kaufmann said. And when you do flip the switch, the lights will either be energy efficient CFL bulbs or in some cases, super-efficient (although very expensive) LEDs.
Label green homes
Their homes list 33 different ways to meet sustainability goals, under three categories: Reduce, reuse and recycle.
“I think homes should be required to have labels of sustainability features,” Kaufmann said. “They should be like nutritional labels on food that we buy.”
That way, people would be knowing whether they are buying a “healthy” house or not.
Architect Michelle Kaufmann, standing in front of Casa Chiara in northwest Denver, thinks homes should come with the equivalent of "nutritional labels" listing sustainability features.
