Planning & Development - Building

High Performance Residential Home Program for Teton County and the Town of Jackson Green Buildings are sited, designed, constructed and operated to enhance the well-being of occupants, and to minimize negative impacts on the community and natural environment. Green Buildings:

• Provide a healthier and more comfortable interior environment
• Improve long-term economic performance
• Incorporate energy and water efficient technologies
• Use recycled content materials in their construction
• Reduce construction and demolition waste
• Bring higher resale value
• Are landscaped for water and energy efficiency
• Include renewable energy technologies
• Improve indoor air quality
• Reduce environmental impact
• Are easier to maintain & built to last

With most of us spending more than 80% of our time indoors, Green Building is the healthy, common sense choice for a better life. As it stands now in traditional construction, the quality of our indoor environment is often far more polluted than outdoors due to various building materials, inadequate lighting, and a variety of other variables. According to EPA reports, the air in new homes can be up to ten times more polluted than outside air due to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other chemicals used in product manufacturing. Contrarily, homes that follow green building guidelines use healthier paints and building materials, and adhere to stricter gas emission and ventilation requirements improving the quality of a home's indoor environment.

Green building can also indicate that fewer natural resources are required during construction. According to the U.S. Department of Energy's Center for Sustainable Development, buildings consume 40% of the world's total energy, 25% of its wood harvest and 16% of its water. Compared to traditional construction, a green built home takes some of this pressure off the environment.

The elected officials of Teton County and the Town of Jackson have shown the community their desire to become more energy efficient by signing the 10 X 10 initiative. Buildings have shown up in the baseline data as 42% of the counties total energy use. Introducing a sustainable, energy efficient residential building program to our community will not only help us meet the objectives of the 10 X 10, it will provide our citizens with a healthier place to live.