Choosing Green: The Homebuyer's Guide to Good Green Homes

I find Choosing Green incredibly insightful and chock full of insider's experience. This is the kind of book that will help homebuyers cut to the chase and leap frog the poseurs towards legitimate green home living.
I think Choosing Green would also be helpful to builders that are trying to green their business. Building green, as Yudelson discusses in the book, is the hottest trend in the building industry, but you have to know how to do so in the best, most effective way. So if you're looking for a thorough guide to good green homes, make sure to pick up a copy of Choosing Green.

Reviewed by Preston D K, Jetson Green

Energy-efficient, non-toxic, healthy homes are the hottest trend in the building industry. Homebuilders are constructing green homes in astonishing numbers—nearly 200,000 in the United States alone in 2006.

How does a home buyer who wants a green home know what to look for, what questions to ask a builder, which green home rating systems to trust, and what homes are on the market? Nationally recognized green-building expert Jerry Yudelson provides answers to some common areas of concern, including:

Energy-efficient home features
Water conservation fixtures
Non-toxic finishes
Green products
Healthy indoor air
Drawing from the expertise of dozens of homebuilders, government officials, and green home experts, Choosing Green deftly takes the reader through these considerations with easy-to-use tables, charts, maps, score sheets, and checklists.

The book includes a glossary of green building terms, an extensive resource section, and a list of homebuilders, green rating programs, and financial incentives. This comprehensive book provides home buyers with every thing they will need to make a successful search for their own green home.

Jerry Yudelson is the president of Yudelson Associates, green building consultants. He has trained over 3,000 people in the LEED green building rating system. He chairs Greenbuild, the world’s largest green building conference, and has written six books on green building, including Green Building A to Z (New Society Publishers).