I don’t care how much in the way of recycled materials you use, how much active or passive solar you have, etc., but a 6,500-square-foot McMansion is NOT green.
It’s not green for a number of reasons:
1. Any amount of non-recycled materials are being used in triple amounts than if this were a national-average home of about 2,200 square feet;
2. Unless hybrid-drive construction equipment has been invented, it takes triple the gasoline/diesel to deliver raw materials, recycled or not, to a homesite this size;
3. As the story like this notes, especially out in the West, homes this size are built far out in exurbia, which means more gas burned driving into Boulder for shopping, etc.
4. In light of that, the U.S. Green Building Council has added a size-adjustment factor to its LEED certification program.
Unfortunately, a pseudoliberal, but not-so-pseudoelite Boulder County Commission isn’t helping.
The county has a size limit on new homes, but you can bust that by buying transferable credits from other landowners in the county.
And, guess where this idea came from? Pitkin County, home of Aspen.
Pitkin finally capped McMansions at 15K square feet.
It’s stuff like this that makes heartland America skeptical, if not cynical, about the green bitchfest of Hollywooders and others.
And, unlike HCN story author Monique Cole, I don’t feel a bit sorry for Boulder County’s Abramsons.
Beyond that, throwing some recycled materials into a house that size sounds like it’s being done for the reason many jetsetter elites buy carbon offset credits — It’s the modern equivalent of indulgences.
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