Homes for our Troops built this LEED Platinum high-performance house for a paralyzed Marine in New Jersey. (Photo: Homes for our Troops)
I came across this really cool story recently about Homes for our Troops , which builds accessible homes for severely injured veterans – at no cost to them. This was the group’s first house to be built to LEED for Homes standards, which rate buildings for energy savings, conservation, indoor air quality and environmental stewardship. And not just LEED certified, but LEED Platinum, which is the highest certification level attainable. This is no small feat. The standards for LEED Platinum are rigorous, to say the least.
What it means for Marine Corporal Visnu Gonzalez, the home's new owner, is that his house is extremely energy-efficient, has outstanding indoor air quality, and used building materials and processes that protect the environment. The severely injured veteran basically got the Rolls-Royce of high-performance, sustainable houses.
I love everything about this beautiful house. It was built to fit into an existing neighborhood that’s close to services that he’ll use every day, and it’s a house that’s meant for the average family. It’s always kind of bugged me that so much of the really cool technology that saves energy and water and provides clean indoor air – things like high-efficiency heating and cooling systems, foam insulation, solar panels, geothermal heat, and tankless hot water heaters -- is so expensive that it puts it out of reach of the people who could benefit from it most.
Plus, it has accessibility features that help Corporal Gonzalez, but would also be helpful to anyone who wants a home that can adapt to their changing needs over time.
I give major props to everyone involved in making this home – and all the other Homes for our Troops houses – a reality. —Pat Curry