Green card

Renaissance Homes takes bold step with

The Beaverton Valley Times, Oct 5, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Submitted photo / Dan Carter

Karl Lang, Renaissance Homes’ new manager of building science, checks an electric ignition gas fireplace in a Peterkort Woods townhouse. Lang’s position is dedicated to helping the company with its “green building” projects.

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Happy Valley’s Karl Lange has a new business card.

The front identifies him as Renaissance Homes’ new Manager of Building Science. The back says “saving the planet, one Renaissance Home at a time,”a rather lofty goal.

Lofty or not, the newly created position signifies a ratcheting up of the commitment Renaissance President Randy Sebastian made to so-called “green building” four years ago when his firm became the first major local builder committed to 100 percent green building through the Earth Advantage Program.

The 33-year-old Lange, who joined Sebastian’s team in 2001 as a construction manager, may well hold Oregon’s first full-time builder position dedicated to expanding and improving his firm’s green building program.

In Renaissance’ case, this means overseeing and improving the firm’s “Living Green” program, a series of green building and energy efficiency systems it has been including in its homes for more than four years.

Besides the Earth Advantage Program, Living Green incorporates the Rainscreen siding system into all Renaissance Homes built west of the Cascade Mountains. Developed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Rainscreen is an exterior wall system that furs out the siding by a half-inch to allow a channel of air to circulate between the siding and the housewrap. It circulates air throughout the exterior of the house so it can “breathe” better.

Any moisture that invades the space also runs through, rather than seeping behind, house wrap or plywood, causing rot or mold.

A recent survey showed that 43.7 percent of people in the four-county area would pay extra for green building, particularly energy efficiency measures.

That’s up from 32 percent two years ago. Sebastian thinks that “green building will just become a larger and larger factor in residential building. Someday all homes will be built green.”

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