Green Building Resources

Florida Green Building Coalition These are the guidelines that I used to build and certify my green home. Download their most recent Green Home reference guide updated 2005 at the bottom of the page. This is a great overall resource and reference for the do it yourself green builder.

US Green Building Council LEED Reference Guides; The LEED Reference Guides are sustainable design guides and user manuals for the LEED Rating Systems. Each guide includes detailed information, resources and standards for the credits covered by the rating system. To learn more about what LEEDs is and if this is for you go to What is LEED?

Citizens’ Environmental Coalition's BUILDING GREEN WITHOUT GOING IN THE RED A Household Guide to Healthy, Affordable Building Materials. This site provides an excellent overview of green building as well as lists specific products and the chemical emissions so you can make an educated decision about what products to use in your healthy home.

California Green Building Blueprint offers a wonderful guide for building public facilities which I think provides a great deal of information for the home builder. The more information you have and the better grasp you have on the bigger picture will help you prioritize how you will go about building your healthy home.

Santamonic Green Building Program Guidelines You can download these guidelines in PDF format.

NYC Department of Design and Construction Sustainable Design High performance guidelines.

Stopwaste.org has a great new home construction green building guidelines manual that you can download. Worth taking a look at and cross referencing with some of the other manuals.

B.E.S.T. Green Builders, Consumers and Realtor' Primer - Provides a brief but clear overview of sustainable building practices. A great place to begin to shape your goals and outline your priorities with your own green building project.

Ecology Action– Green Building Materials and Project Guide They have both a project guide and a Green Building Directory.

NAHB-Green Home Building Guidelines Learn about the guiding principles that every green home builder should know- lot design, preparation, and development, resource efficiency, Energy efficiency, Water efficiency , Indoor environmental quality, Operation, maintenance & homeowner education, Global impact and Site planning and land development.

Green Building and Green Living Product Guides and Directories

Environmentally Friendly Purchasing Guide This is one of the most comprehensive and thorough guides available on line. You will find this site to be well organized and easy to maneuver. This site is well worth your time and energy and very well may save you a lot of grief and frustration down the road.

Oikos is a green product directory they don’t have the most comprehensive list but this is where I found some of the most difficult products to locate so it’s worth doing a search!

EPA’s Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines This is a great source for recycled and reusable resources.

Debra’s List.com -The purpose of Debra's List is to organize, make accessible, and make known the wide variety of products and services that are currently available with life-sustaining health and environmental benefits...and to inspire you to use them in your everyday life. This is a non-biased list and she gets no income from the companies that she recommends or reviews. A Great place for overall resources and information.

Green Seal works with manufacturers, industry sectors, purchasing groups, and governments at all levels to "green" the production and purchasing chain. Which means they try to set a standard or guideline that products have to meet to get their stamp of approval? This list is not very comprehensive but you may find a few things that you can't find anywhere else. It’s worth a look as well as your support.

Green Product Guide Quite a bit of attention has been focused on the issue of green building materials. What makes a given product "green"? How does one evaluate the relative greenness of different products? How does one find green products? That’s what this directory is all about!

CHPS-The mission of the Collaborative of High Performance Schools is to facilitate the design of high performance schools: environments that are not only energy efficient, but also healthy, comfortable, well lit, and containing the amenities needed for a quality education. CHPS put together a list of Low-Emitting Materials that you may find helpful.

Greenerbuilding.com is your source for sustainable building products and ideas. Throughout the site, you'll find building products, local dealers, and helpful programs near you.

GreenSpec is Building Green's premiere product information service. It contains detailed listings for more than 2,000 environmentally preferable building products with descriptions, manufacturer information, and links to additional resources. You do have to pay to search this listing but you can buy a week for $12.95 and get all your research done!

Ecomall.com has a short but worthwhile list of non-toxic building materials.

Green Building Pages a sustainable building materials database and design tool for the environmentally and socially responsible designer, builder and client.

Sustainable Sources Directory is a comprehensive directory providing links and information to assist you with financing your new green project, to finding a green realtor, to product information and finding a consultant to assist with your green building project.

Healthy Home Plans is a web directory for sustainable, healthy and environmentally friendly products. As well as offering home plans for green residential homes.

Alliance for Healthy Homes is a site dedicated to working towards affordable healthy housing for all. This is an overall great site for general information and links.

AllOrganicLinks.com is a not-for-profit web site created by Foerstel Design, a graphic design firm committed to the organic industry and it’s community. The sole purpose of AllOrganicLinks.com is to connect users with businesses that support organics and a healthier planet.

Green Building Programs by State

Greenbuilding Looking for a building program in your area that advocates green building? You're in the right place. Begin by picking your state from the list below or by searching the entire program list in the green search box above.

General Resources Green Building

EPA Green Buildings provides a good introduction and overview of green building and some of the specific aspects that define green building. They list the basic Elements of green building.

Sustainable Builder Tool Kit This is a great resource for information on building a green home to Indoor Air Quality to water recycling. Once again this is the site for the state of California it is well worth your time to reference this site throughout your projects for additional information and resources.

Green Building Pages has an excellent resource and links page and rather than duplicating their efforts I thought it would be a great link to help you in your research.

Global Green Green building resource center.

GreenerBuildingsThe resource for environmentally responsible building development is a free, Web-based resource to help companies of all sizes and sectors understand and address building design, construction, and operation in a way that aligns environmental responsibility with business success.

GreenHomeGuide helps close the gap between intentions and practical realities. We’re a trusted, community-based resource whose combination of tips, case studies, expert Q&A articles and regional directories of products and services helps millions of homeowners create homes that make them feel good.

Healthy Building.net is advocating for environmental health and justice where we work, live and play.

Green Building Forum is a great place to find the latest news and update regarding green building.

Everyone Deserves a HomeThis is a great site for general information on green building.

Information on Chemical Toxins

Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ASDR)- Want to know a little more about Benzine? Or maybe Dioxin? How about Fluoride? This site gives you all the information you need to make a conscience decision about what chemicals you should be concerned about!

Chemicalbodyburden.org Information is power learn more about chemical body burden and whether you should be concerned about the chemicals in your body.

California IAQYou have to love the state of California they are on the cutting edge of the green building movement. Their Indoor Air Quality and Personal Exposure Assessment Program provides you with unlimited resources regarding the toxins you are exposed to in and outside your home. It’s worth going through each page!

Scorecard is the pollution information site. Great site to learn more about the chemicals in consumer products.

If you enjoyed these resources you may also like to read my blog article What Products Should I use to Build My Healthy Home?