Renewable energy
goal: replace part, or all of your conventional energy use with energy sourced from solar, wind, or co-generation.
Here is where all of the building science from above comes together. Add your personality, add politics and add economics. Add climate and climate change. Add environmentalism and globalism. Do you want to include renewable energy to your building project? At the end of the day, it is possible to calculate very accurately what it will cost you, and over what period of time it will recover the capital investment. The CO2 savings, and the grey (manufacturing) energy can also be calculated in most cases, so that we’re comparing apples with apples.
We believe in a strategy of reducing energy consumption first, and supplementing with renewable energy after. Simply powering an energy-hungry building with acres of photo-voltaic cells while neglecting other critical aspects of energy efficiency is short-sighted and simply doesn't make economic or environmental sense.