Roof Tiles

MonierLife concrete roof tiles were installed on Vision House Aspen. MonierLife is committed to using naturally available materials, which mitigates the negative impact to the environment and emphasizes conservation and energy efficiency. Essentially, concrete roof tile is inherently sustainable. MonierLife extracts materials from a plant Northeast of Denver, which produces 100% of the product,  again making it green by nature of its local origins. The durability of this product also makes it green, in that the need to replace it (thus using more natural resources) is greatly reduced due to its long life span.

Beetle Kill Siding

In many areas of the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Mountains, the Mountain Pine Beetle has ravaged the local pine forests killing many healthy trees. These trees are being harvested for construction materials, such as the siding we chose for this project. This product is green not only because by removing the dead trees, the fire danger is decreased, but it also diverts them from the landfill, which is where many of them were initially ending up. They also have a nice look appropriate for the style of our home and offer all the traditional benefits of wood siding.

Local Stone and Aggregate

All of the stone used on the exterior walls of the home, the interior decorative elements, and the patio walls were harvested within well within the LEED for Homes 500 mile “local” extraction radius. The aggregate used in the foundation and French drains is also local. The obvious benefits of doing so are the decreased energy used in transport of the product and the LEED points earned for doing so. When looking for a local stone supplier, we chose Telluride Stone because not only did they provide that certain Aspen vernacular we were looking for, but also their superb quality, good reputation, and of course, location.

Steel

There are various steel products incorporated into this project, including steel standing seam roofing, various structural beams and decorative (yet functional) connection plates/brackets/gables, as well as rebar in the concrete. Most of the steel produced these days contains high levels of recycled content and our selections are no different. The roofing product came from Bridger Steel. Bridger Steel contains anywhere from 20-40% recycled content. Bridger Steel also recycles any scrap metal during the manufacturing process, significantly decreasing their landfill contribution. The inherent recycled content, long life and durability of steel make it a sound green building choice.