Read N Seed 2: First Quarter of Green From the Ground Up

1. The first quarter of the book is 81 pages and four chapter long. The four chapters are green building basics, the house as a system, planning and design, and foundations.
2. Chapter one was the intro to the book and cleared up a couple common questions and myths. It talked about the rising demand and popularity for building green. It cleared up a myths about the cost, who would want to build green, and how the buildings will look. Chapter 2 explained how the house is a system and how everything works throughout it. It talked about the different ways that heat is transferred and how to control heat flow throughout the house. Next was the importance or air leakage and barriers on windows, doorways, etc because of the presence of moisture. It finished up talking about noise pollution from inside and outside and how to minimize both. Chapter 3 was the first steps in building a house and what to consider and make sure you make an educated decision about. the biggest thing was siting the house and the position of it. many different aspects come into play including what part of the house faces which way in order to use the sunlight to help control the house's temperature. Also what kind of landscaping and vegetation would help with cutting cost off heating and cooling the house. Chapter 4 was the first step of actually building the house, the foundation. The major topic of this chapter was insulation of the foundation to prevent heat loss. It covered the best ways to do it and and what materials could be used to insulate it. It finished with making sure that moisture is considered and how to minimize it starting with the outside of the house then the foundation itself.
3. One of the cooler things that I learned from the first four chapters that I did not know was the use of straw for insulation. it said that it will probably never be a mainstream use for wall insulation but it has many positives. It is a renewable resource that can be harvested locally, it is relatively inexpensive, and straw-bale walls have a high R-value for energy efficiency.
4. One of the things that I thought could affect society was the siting and window placement on buildings, and use of tress in order to use the sun for helping to heat and cool the building. There really is a significant difference in good and bad spots to build in order to save energy. Doing some research in a community that is going to be doing a lot of brand new developing can really make an impact by picking the right spots using the landscape and sun to help keep the buildings energy efficient. I think that there should be an evaluation of the landscape before a developer can build on a large site legally.