A Mother's Need for Green

Creating a safe, healthy environment for children can seem like a daunting task considering existing homes today are often full of toxins and poor air quality. Because of this, more and more mothers are digging in and insisting on a truly green home – and they’re doing their homework. One local contractor is happy to help educate.

"Mom’s today are less concerned with closet space and more concerned about proper ventilation, contaminate free materials, and the overall health of a home. As a parent, the health of your children is the highest priority. Mothers are taking a much more active role in the building process to ensure their entire home is safe," said Dirk Wildt, President of Cobblestone Builders in Menomonee Falls.

According to greenandhealthyhomes.org, "nearly six million households live with moderate to severe home health hazards, which place them at-risk for illnesses and injuries including asthma, lead poisoning, slips and falls and respiratory illnesses." So how does green building minimize these risks and can all families afford to go green?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines green building as "the process which encapsulates creating structures in an environmentally friendly and efficient way." In layman’s terms, green building means causing little damage to the environment with high performing homes.

The best way to determine how safe your home is, is to familiarize yourself with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. This set of standards holds your builder accountable for everything from using recycled or earth-friendly materials, causing little to no environmental damage during construction and conserving water to being energy efficient and remaining clean over time.

For the penny pinching mom, does the cost really make sense? When you consider the billions of dollars spent annually on housing-related healthcare costs from children’s doctor visits to prescription drugs needed because of an unhealthy home, lost productivity from missing work to care for ill children, and lack of energy-efficiency in homes which can cause chronic breathing problems to lowered immune systems, the upfront costs of building a green home are minimal.

"A few years ago, building green may have meant you’d be spending a notably higher amount than traditional construction. Today, we’ve gotten green building and energy efficiency built into our homes