The Colorado Green Building Guild is partnering with Thorne Nature Experience in Lafayette to host a Green Buildings as Part of a Land Ethic program, a free event designed to teach the community about sustainable building practices, high efficiency homes and help attendees understand the impact their choices make when building and how to lessen those environmental impacts.

The program, 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday at the Lafayette Nature Center, 300 Old Laramie Trail E, is co-sponsored by Lafayette Open Space and RSVP is required. More information and RSVPs can be sent to martin.ogle@lafayetteco.gov.

Johnny Rezvani, board member of the Colorado Green Building Guild, said while the guild is a networking and educational organization for people and businesses in the green building world to connect, anyone is invited to the guild to learn more about sustainable buildings.

He said there are many ways to build green, whether that means little to no construction waste, lowering carbon emissions, using nontoxic building materials, solar panels and more. The event will explain the variety of ways people can build more sustainable, but also teach people how to view buildings as a whole.

“You can’t change one thing without having a domino effect,” Rezvani said.

He said oftentimes, people view green buildings as an add-on to regular construction. Instead, he encourages people to see how the whole building can work together to be more sustainable. He said that with a more holistic approach, people can plan out an entire green building effectively.

Kevin Lombardo, a guild member, lost his Louisville home in the Dec. 30, 2021, Marshall Fire and rebuilt a high efficiency, green home. At the start of Lombardo’s rebuilding journey, he had an “uninspiring” view on rebuilding as he did not have many requests for his new home. While rebuilding webinars were very common after the fire, he attended one held by the Colorado Green Building Guild that changed his outlook on how he and his family should rebuild their home.

“At the end of the webinar I was like ‘that is what we are doing, now I care,’” Lombardo said.

After being connected to builders and architects with the help of the guild, Lombardo and his family now live in a “passive house.” He said the passive house is a building standard, built in a way that catches the sun and shades the home as desired, with incredibly efficient insulation, windows and ventilation.

Lombardo has worked for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden since 2007, which sponsors the Solar Decathlon competition for designing and building high performance homes every year. While he has worked closely with the competition for years, it did not quite click that those designs could be his home.

“It didn’t click that these are the homes that the competition is about, like these (homes) are real, you can actually build these,” Lombardo said.

He said the realization of how those high performance homes could apply to real life and how with the right tools, he could have one.

Keith Desrosiers, executive director at Thorne Nature Experience in Lafayette, said green buildings use less energy to operate and consequently helps create a healthier environment, which also benefits the people who occupy the building.

Desrosiers said Thorne did not create the Lafayette Nature Center with the intent on making the “greenest building ever,” but instead made smart and intentional decisions. He said Thorne could have made other green building choices that would have had little to no impact on lowering the building’s carbon footprint. Instead, those dollars are being focused on creating environmental stewardship programs.

“My advice is to hire an architect that can work with you to help you understand where there is value for you and within your budget. In my opinion, perfect should not be the enemy of good in green building,” Desrosiers said.

More information is available at thornenature.org/event/green-buildings-as-part-of-a-land-ethic.