From the initial concept, the development, and construction our vision has been green which saves energy and water, reduces material use, protects the site, uses low-impact materials, minimizes waste, makes the building environment healthier, recycles unused materials, is cost effective, energy efficient, and durable, and conserves natural resources. Engineering, sizing, and material choices are carefully calculated and evaluated for optimized material performance and to reduce our carbon footprint.

Our green efforts throughout Caribou Ridge Homes and in our model home at 24 Ridge View Road include:

• Minimal impact to the surrounding vegetation and natural resources. For instance, cut and fill slopes were maintained at 3:1 in order to reduce the amount of excavation during road building and to provide a slope that would hold top soil and re-vegetation.
• Performed Anchor Point Wild Fire Mitigation on entire site.
• Processed all removed trees and slash into firewood, and chip-mulch for on-site trail systems, site reclamation, and landscape material for all future homes within the subdivision.
• Reclaimed, screened, and stock – piled all excavated materials into several aggregate products including road base, rip rap for drainage and erosion control systems, select backfill material, gravel for driveways, structural fill and top soil.
• Designed all concrete mixes as much as possible with recycled aggregates, 30% fly ash from coal power plants and recycled crushed concrete gravel from the Stapleton Airport Demolition projects.
• Placed all concrete wash out materials in re-usable and recyclable locations.
• Developed a storm water management plan where natural features are preserved.
• Implemented grey water drip irrigation for #24 Ridge View Dr.
• Sorted and recycled all construction debris and trash.
• Used locally and regionally produced products and services as much as possible.
• Constructed exterior walls with CEMPO, manufactured from recycled polystyrene packaging providing very high insulation and fire rating performance for the structural and foundation wall systems for #24 Ridge View Dr.
• The concrete grout used for the structural component in the CEMPO forms is made from recycled fly ash and peal gravel aggregates.
• Interior and exterior CEMPO wall finishes are made of cement and organic materials; the top coats provided are either earthen plasters or low VOC products.
• Floor, wall and roof framing materials are engineered lumber systems and wood systems certified by the Forest Stewardship Council U.S. to insure protection from over-forestation practices; resource efficient materials are selected for exact project applications.
• All exterior windows and doors are manufactured by Marvin, providing high performance energy efficient low-e glazing with wood frames and aluminum cladding, providing a “no maintenance” and energy saving system.
• The exterior masonry stone is made from real stone mined from local quarries as much as possible to reduce hauling and the carbon footprint.
• All structural framing materials are engineered components that are made of laminated wood to keep from using large old growth timber. Other interior and exterior wood products are recycled from local beetle killed trees or from FSC controlled forested products.
• The tongue and groove wood flooring system is made from trestle wood reclaimed from the train trestles located at the Great Salt Lake area.
• The wood floor finishes are durable soy based, low volatile organic compound (VOC) products.
• Exterior metal roofing and siding systems are made from recycled metal and finished with a low VOC no-maintenance enamel finish
• The interior and exterior painting and wood finishing systems utilize the low VOC soy based products; the wall and ceiling painting is made of low VOC water based acrylic or milk casein color powder products.
• All wall, ceiling, floor, and sound wall insulation is a high performance, low impact water base spray foam open cell insulation derived from castor bean oil; this system provides increased r-value, vapor barriers, sound attenuation, and energy saving sealant at all wall, floor, and ceiling penetrations.
• All toilets are a 1.2 gallon dual flush, low water use system design.
• All toilets are flushed with grey water from the Legacy Grey Water System.
• All shower, tubs, and kitchen plumbing fixtures are of efficient low flow design.
• All appliances are Energy Star rated for high efficiency performance.
• A primary solar thermal hot water heating system uses high performance evacuated tube solar collectors mounted on the roof structure to provide domestic hot water, in-floor heating, and spa heating connections are provided.
• Heat recovery ventilation/geothermal heating, cooling, and humidification systems for interior environmental air quality comfort and control.
• Grey water is used in drip irrigation systems.
• Photovoltaic solar power system for production of solar electrical energy.
• Wind power turbines produce electrical energy by utilizing the site air and wind currents.
• Industrial sealed batteries stacked 6 units high produce 12000 AH @ 24 volts for whole house battery back-up, providing up to three days of continuous power support to personal computers, whole house automation, security systems, and digital control devices.
• Whole house automation systems and data logging; Cat-5 media cabling, DSL communication wiring, and satellite Direct TV system.