Informed Energy Decisions is proud to have served as the green and energy advisor for the Avery-Donaldson house, one of the greenest homes in America and winner of the Glencoe Historic Preservation Commission 2008 Preservation Award for New Construction.

While many green homes tout green roofs, solar panels, windmills, and geothermal systems as essential elements, we believe at Informed Energy Decisions that green construction must start with the best-practice techniques for standard home construction. "Our goal is to make Green Building a very attractive option to mainstream builders," said Cappy Kidd, the Informed Energy design consultant for this project. "It's not the unique features about this house that I find so encouraging; rather it is the repeatable elements."

The design team used the National Association of Home Builders Model Green Home Guidelines as a template during the conceptual, design and construction phases. The house has green scores that far surpass the Gold standard of the NAHB guidelines. In addition to using only 47% of the energy of a similar size house built to the International Energy Conservation Code of 2004, the house boasts something in the neighborhood of a hundred additional green features. We even had all of the reusable components of the preexisting house on the site recycled.