Green. Sustainable. Earth-Friendly. What do any of these oft-used terms actually mean? As conscious builders, we ask ourselves this question frequently. After much deliberation and internal dialogue, we’ve come to settle on the term “High Performance”. We liken a High Performance house to a high performance car – detailed meticulously to be both beautiful and striking, as well as durable, comfortable, and built to a premium quality; all while being as “light” from an environmental standpoint as possible.
Our philosophy as it pertains to High Performance must include the following principles:
- Superior Indoor Environmental Quality – This is listed first, because the occupants and their health should be the utmost priority in anything that we build. This means delivering a product that considers human health at every turn. Air, sound, light, etc, are all carefully regarded in each of our new builds.
- Occupant Comfort – It doesn’t matter how much or how little energy your new home consumes, if it isn’t comfortable for those who live there then all the work has been for naught.
- Building Durability – We’ve put a lot of time and energy into developing building systems that work harmoniously together to increase the longevity of the home. Our philosophy is that the building enclosure should do the heavy lifting so the owners can spend their time not worrying about ice dams and moisture issues, and more time on the things that matter in life.
- Sustainable Sourcing of Materials – When it is feasible, we try and source local lumber and support local artisans to boost the community and our hometown economy in addition to keeping transport emissions to a minimum.
- Low Embodied Carbon Building Practices – It is Downstream’s belief that new buildings can be a solution to the climate crisis that threatens our globe. Through materials selections that are net “carbon-negative” (i.e. they entrain carbon) we strive to do our part to combat climate change.
High Performance construction is something Downstream is passionate about, and after you see one of our new builds, we’re confident you’ll grow to share that passion as well!
