Green Week

Welcome to Green Week at Wildesign. This week will feature some of my favorite sustainable building options, but first, allow me to introduce you to Keystone Community Church.

Keystone is the first LEED-certified church building in the U.S. Our new mantra is "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's LEED certification." We're working on it.

Keystone is a non-denominational church in Ada, Michigan. They minister to about 850 people every weekend in a really cool, earth-friendly building. Worship Facilities featured them last spring; you can check that out here.

Highlights:

• Sensored lighting insures that lights are not left on in empty rooms.
• Waterless urinals and low-flow toilets save a bundle of water and money (we'll talk about those tomorrow).
• The building was intentionally situated in a natural clearing of a wooded area to protect the building from weather and avoid tree clearing.
• Every room gets some degree of natural lighting.
• Old, exterior building products were re-introduced as interior finishes.
• All paints and finishes are low-VOC products.
• There are electric car outlets in the parking lot.
  

Of course, LEED certification is not easy to come by. Every meeting and every decision needs to be made with LEED in mind, and the up-front costs for paperwork can be daunting.

Eventually, though, it all pays off. Your community knows that your congregation shares its values and is willing to put its money where its mouth is. Not to mention you save tremendously on reduced water and energy consumption.

Props to Keystone. May the rest of us be close behind.