Case Study: European Standards Drive Performance - Green Building, Green Standards, Construction Trends - EcoHome Magazine Page 1 of 2

Interesting on Europe and US and green building.

If you focus only on the reasons why European home builders are a decade or more ahead of the United States in the quality and performance of sustainable housing, you’ll miss the available, proven, and affordable technologies and tactics that can travel over the Atlantic to close that gap. To be sure, a heavier (and accepted) dose of government regulation, more stringent (and mandated) energy-use and carbon-emission standards, and a deeply embedded cultural ethos that champion the collective good over individual aspirations all seem as foreign (and frightening) to American builders as wearing a kilt and eating the traditional Scottish dish haggis—and something they are even less likely to try. But political and social differences aside, there’s a lot to be learned and applied from the European model of low-energy and low-carbon, yet comfortable and durable, residential des...

Full article: http://www.ecohomemagazine.com/green-building/across-the-...