Going 'green': function and form key to new home construction with environment and energy savings in forefront.(BUILDING ALASKA)

Fairbanks builder Mike Musick started preaching about "green" building before anyone had coined the phrase.

"Since the mid-1970s, I've been building as green as I could; I just didn't call it green," he said.

Through the years, he has worked with the Cooperative Extension service in Fairbanks, the Alaska Craftsman Home program, the Alaska Health House, the Alaska Building Science Network and the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, all in the interest of developing and teaching better building techniques.

Thus, Musick is a natural to bring a new program to Alaska. Under his leadership, the Interior Alaska Building Association has become one of 15 homebuilders associations nationwide to promote a Green Building Initiative. The program enables builders to tap a growing market by certifying green-built homes.

DEFINING GREEN

The first challenge in certifying a house as green is defining the term.

"There are a lot of misconceptions about this new green building," said homebuilder Thorsten Chlupp, who owns REINA Alaska and helped Musick develop the local Green Building Initiative. "It's not just about energy and it's not just about having paint that doesn't have any chemicals that cause trouble." Instead, …