Name: The tradeoffs of building green
Uploaded: 2010-04-14T08:45:00Z
Duration: 5 min 56 s
Description: In a short, funny, data-packed talk at TED U, Catherine Mohr walks through all the geeky decisions she made when building a green new house -- looking at real energy numbers, not hype. What choices matter most? Not the ones you think.

In a short, funny, data-packed talk at TED U, Catherine Mohr walks through all the geeky decisions she made when building a green new house -- looking at real energy numbers, not hype. What choices matter most? Not the ones you think.

The tradeoffs of building green

Building green often means obsessing over tiny lifestyle tweaks, but the real energy cost comes from the materials and methods used in construction. A single new home can embody the energy of millions of paper towels, with just the window material able to double its energy footprint. By prioritizing big-impact decisions like material selection and construction techniques, one project halved its embodied energy, yet still required years to break even compared to an upgraded existing house. The biggest surprises often hide in overlooked details, not in popular green living headlines.