Green building practices offer an opportunity to create environmentally sound and resource-efficient buildings by using an integrated approach to design.

Green buildings promote resource conservation, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water conservation features; consider environmental impacts and waste minimization and help create a healthy and comfortable environment.

More and more designers, builders, and building owners are becoming interested and involved in green building. Included below are several resources for builders, consumers, and designers that provide more information on green buildings.

• EPA's Green Buildings Website is a "portal" website, designed to give users one convenient gateway from which to access numerous EPA programs and topics related to environmentally-friendly building. These programs include ENERGY STAR, Indoor Air, Smart Growth, Environmentally Preferable Building Products and more -- including a new Construction and Demolition (C&D) Debris website (select "Waste" from list offered).
  
  
• The U.S. Green Buildings Council (USGBC) provides services to its membership and constituents. Members include building owners and managers, product manufacturers, architects/engineers and others with stakes in the greening of buildings and the communities in which they reside. The Council provides membership services to these organizations to enhance their businesses, including information sharing, networking opportunities, business leads, and publicity. The USGBC also advocates green building practices that will result in a healthy planet.
  
  
• Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development. To help communities design and implement a vibrant new approach to planning, the US Department of Energy has created a Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development. This new service assists communities throughout the United States by providing excellent consultation and information on sustainable development.
  
  
• Green Building Resource Guide. In this guide, mainly for homebuilders, each of the nearly 600 product listings includes a brief product description, icons representing categories of environmental benefit, contact information for the manufacturer, and a cost comparison with its most likely conventional alternative. Icons identify nontoxic, recycled-content, resource efficient, long life cycle and environmentally conscious products. You can order the Green Building Resource Guide in two forms: a reference manual or a CD-ROM database. Though no longer in print, this 1997 publication is still available through online booksellers.
  
  
• Oikos: Green Construction Source. Oikos is dedicated to information on energy efficiency and sustainable building construction. The website offers architects, designers, building contractors, consultants and consumers detailed information on products and techniques. The centerpiece of the site is a searchable database of 1,500 sources of building materials and equipment with substantial environmental benefits, including products made with recycled content and product that save energy. Oikos also offers an electronic version of the Energy Source Builder newsletter.
  
  
• Sustainable Buildings Industries Council (SBIC) is an independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance the design, affordability, energy performance, and environmental soundness of residential, institutional, and commercial buildings.
  
  
• The Green Building Advisor (GBA) is an innovative, interactive software tool that helps you identify green design strategies for your building projects. Enter information about a project and—based on those inputs—GBA generates a prioritized list of strategies organized into categories for easy review. Linked screens describe each strategy in detail, provide information on relative costs, describe when in the process to consider the strategy, explain interrelationships between strategies, identify sources for more information, and show—thought case studies—how actual projects have used the strategy.