Empowering People to Build or Remodel Better Homes with Green Home Institute

Everyday Green Home

There are so many green home experts out there! That makes it hard to know where to go for help and who to approach for the resources you require.

People need to know where to go to get trusted information. So today, I would like to introduce the Green Home Institute because they have been extremely helpful to me! They have vast resources, products, and education that they focus on and update regularly.

I’m Marla, the Green Home Coach! Today, Brett Little from the Green Home Institute joins me to unpack the resources, education, and product knowledge they provide!

About Brett

Brett is the Education Manager at the Green Home Institute. He started as a volunteer for the organization thirteen years ago. It paid off and has been with them ever since. Now, he encourages others to go out into their communities and volunteer.

Brett lives in West Michigan with his wife and two children. He is currently working on his own home to make it sustainable. He also uses his home to tell people stories about what they can do to their homes.

About the Green Home Institute

The mission of the Green Home Institute is to empower people to make healthier and more sustainable choices when constructing or renovating their homes. They work internationally and do specific things in some areas of the United States. They focus primarily on certification and educating people on making their new or existing homes more sustainable. They also offer continued education for people to maintain their accreditation and make real-world changes through their certification.

In West Michigan, they provide grant funding to remove the cost barriers and provide education and certifications for local affordable green and sustainable housing projects.

ICCF Community Homes

ICCF Community Homes is a large entity that recognized the affordable housing crisis even before it hit the news in 2017. They committed to buying up properties to sell or rent to the local community at affordable rates and to Green Star certify a portion of their portfolio. Their goal is to get people into homes.

HVAC

A lot of education is necessary within the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air-conditioning) industry.

Ventilation

Ventilation is essential for our homes to stay healthy. We need to have fresh air inside our tightly-built homes, and we need to exhaust the stale air containing pollutants and moisture.

Webinars

The Green Home Institute produces a webinar series every Wednesday. Most of the webinars get recorded and posted on their YouTube channel.

The five pillars of green homes

The Green Home Institute uses the five pillars of green homes to educate and advise people, simplify and expand some of their concepts, assist people in understanding the trade-offs they may need to make, make it easier to know how to build and improve homes holistically, and help people maintain their green home certifications. They are:

1. Energy

2. Health

3. Water

4. Materials

5. Place

Policy and Advocacy

The Green Home Institute has been engaging politically by speaking up and focusing more on policy and advocacy.

The Green Home Institute newsletter

The Green Home Institute newsletter focuses mainly on educating people and the webinars they do.

The Green Home Institute website

The Green Home Institute website is currently being redone. They are updating it and adding many more of the professionals with whom they have been working.

Green Star Program

The Green Home Institute's Green Star Program is open-sourced and free to use.

Have a great green day!

Links:

Healthier Home Checklist

Green Home Institute

Learn from Green Home Institute's YouTube Channel

Products to help build green

Get Involved with Green Home Institute

Living Green Effortlessly: Simple Choices for a Better Home book