Travois Design & Construction Services Architect David Grimes and I recently hosted a “Developing Sustainable Tribal Housing” course, one of the many free training courses provided by the National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC). A group of 27 students with varied backgrounds in the housing industry joined us in Seattle.
David and I have hosted several of these trainings, and I think this particular training was our best yet in terms of developing and refining our list of available green building resources. We met with a representative from the National Tribal Healthy Homes office and were lucky enough to have several folks from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) join us and share their insights and tips for navigating information in the green-building world.
We’ve generated quite a list of “go to” resources. If you have some time to investigate this topic, I recommend checking out the following:
- Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
- Energy Star Program
- Enterprise Green Communities (green rating program)
- Tribal Energy Program (Department of Energy)
- Solar Design tools
- Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy
- Guide to Mold and Moisture
- Passive Solar
- My last, and maybe favorite, resource is also on the Enterprise Green Communities website. They have a great tools section with easy–to-download training packages that can be very helpful to educate new tenants and maintenance staff on green building and healthy living principles.
Attending a green training is always a good way to learn more. We really like the NAIHC trainings because the topics are prepared specifically for tribal projects and give attendees the opportunity to network with one another by sharing first-hand information and expertise directly related to tribal projects. Unfortunately, this was our last training for 2012, but stay tuned — we hope to offer more in 2013!