Midwest Eco-Design - Your home for eco-friendly construction, remodeling & housing choices including prefrabricated homes, cabins and other sustainable material choices.

According to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), for a material to qualify as “green”, it must:

• Meet or exceed performance requirements.
• Have sufficient, predictable strength, durability, or stability.
• Be resistant to moisture, decay, or biocontamination.
• Be nontoxic or nonhazardous to occupants and installers.
• Be comparable in cost (labor + materials + equipment + other) to traditional materials.
• Be able to be harvested sustainably and installed efficiently.
• Be rapidly renewable or abundant.
• Be a closed-loop material, which means it can be recycled again and again.
• Involve minimal direct/indirect use of nonrenewables.
• Be adaptable, reusable, or recyclable.

Americans spend more than $160 billion a year to heat, cool, light, and otherwise power their homes. With the rising cost of fuels, many homeowners are fighting the ever-increasing gas and electric bills. To do a full energy audit on your home & learn how to save energy AND money, see the Home Energy Saver Calculator.

Want to know your carbon footprint?  Check out http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/.  Answer questions and find out your carbon footprint score.  Then learn more steps you can take to reduce your score even more.

Here is mine: (it says below the US national average, yet it feels way too high for me and I will be taking whatever steps necessary to reduce it.)  Mine is based on a 3-person household.

Boulder, CO has big plans for a green construction project that will provide approximately 153 units (homes) to a range of home buyers.  But what exactly is the range?  How much $$?  That is the first question people are going to ask before being interested in a home in this development.  In this economy, whether the home is green & will save you money over time, there is still the reality of PRICE and GETTING FINANCING for such a home.

The article claims that two-thirds of the new units, to be built in Lafayette, Colo., will be available to residents with limited incomes. They will be certified by both Green Communities and the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program.

So let’s see how limited your income has to be to own one of these:

* $100 to $125 a square foot, depending on whether geothermal heat pumps or solar panels are included

Already if you calculate a typical 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom 1600sq ft home; we’re talking about $200,000 base price @ $125 a square foot (assuming you would want to include the heat pumps & solar panels) – otherwise you might as well buy an existing home & upgrade other items with sustainable products because the solar panels & geothermal heat pumps are additions that most consumers are NOT going to make on their existing home by themselves. Sure it saves a bundle on energy costs over the lifetime of the home, but it also can cost a bunch to install. So we’re assuming the logical thing to do would be go with the $125 a square foot and get those additions.

So, MINIMAL a down payment of $10,000 will be required – only if you have EXCELLENT credit, (because that is only 5%) – calculating the monthly payment, including principle, interest, tax and insurance will be over $1600.00 per/month.

A bank is going to need 60K yearly income from the purchaser just to justify a loan like this.

Where does the limited income part factor in? Because I’m not seeing anything limited or discounted about this project.

Be careful when you hear about projects like these – there can always be hidden costs & they sink all their money into marketing the sustainability of the home without being very upfront about the money involved to actually MAKE it happen.