BEND, Ore. – A new Native initiative has set its sights on green building certification and training specifically geared to meet tribal needs.

The Green Native Council, which formed last summer, has developed a program of standards to help Native communities design and build certified green and sustainable buildings, and to train tribal members in inspection and certification practices. In addition, the council hopes to become a center of information for Indian country in green sustainability and environmental preservation.

“Indian country is poised to become a leader in the growth that the green, sustainable and renewable industry is currently experiencing,” said Tony Monroe, Yakama, a member of the Green Native Council’s board of directors. “We are excited at the possibility of our company being in the forefront of this growing field. Besides the obvious contribution we will be making to save our sacred natural resources, it gives us a chance to serve Native communities. Native people have been at the forefront of sustainable and renewable living and are very keen on the value and importance of natural resources.”

Monroe is the principal architect with Northwest Native Architecture, a Native company that has been designing and building green projects in the northwest since the early 1990s.

The council is not reinventing the wheel when it comes to green standards. It has incorporated many of the standards from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, and Green Globe, an international sustainability program developed at the U.N. Rio Earth Summit of 1992.

“But we saw a need in the last couple of years, because what we’re finding is LEED and Green Globe are great systems and have a lot of information in place, but in Indian country – and not just in Indian country – not everybody understands what ‘green’ really means. So people in Indian country would tell us, ‘We want it green,’ and we’d say, ‘Ok, what do you want?’ and they’d say, ‘Well, we don’t know. We just want it green.’ They’d been to a conference about green building or HUD said they’d get more bonus points for a grant if the building was green. So we tried to put our arms around what green is and what the client wants,” Monroe said.

In a LEED certified building, for example, a project might get points for having bus transportation to the site. But most reservations don’t have mass transportation, “and we’re saying why should we penalize a tribe for not having mass transportation? So we started looking at standards that are more tailored to Indian country. And what we did was we took a stack of cards and threw out the jokers – the ones that weren’t applicable to Indian country – and we put together our own program,” Monroe said.

The council was formed as a for-profit company to get it started quickly, but is in the process of becoming a nonprofit organization, Monroe said. The council will act as the certification body.

There are no universal standards for green building, but there are common green categories. In terms of architecture, the focus is on using sustainable or recycled and local materials.

“It doesn’t make sense to use a green product if it has to be transported 2,000 miles,” Monroe said.

Site design focuses on sun exposure, Native plantings, and minimal disturbance to the environment. Energy efficiency, water and resource conservation and indoor air quality are also considered.

But why certify buildings? Isn’t it enough just to build green? Green certification can bring tax benefits, fulfill legal mandates, and satisfy lender and grant requirements.

The Green Native Council is also planning to provide a training program so tribes can establish their own certification experts, who could inspect plans and finished projects to verify that the green elements were incorporated before the council signs off on certification. It would save tribes money and provide jobs.

Several projects are underway that will receive Green Native Council certification.

The Spokane Child Development Center for the Spokane Tribe of Indians is designed to be certified “Earth Friendly” using Green Native Council standards.

“It is being constructed using structural insulated panels, energy efficient features and fixtures, high efficiency heating and cooling systems as well as electric producing PV solar panels with cultural elements such as animal tracks,” Monroe said. The animal tracks lead to a wall with pictures and names of the animals in English and the Spokane language.

The Sidwalter Fire Hall on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon is also designed “Earth Friendly” under the council’s standards. Its construction includes a structural insulated panel roof system, high efficiency heating, cooling and lighting, and a minimally disturbed natural landscaped site.

A housing project for the Yurok Indian Housing Authority includes three homes built in Klamath with certified sustainable lumber, energy efficient heat pumps, Energy Star appliances, low maintenance finishes and minimal disturbance to the site.

“The council is also working on a 30,000 square foot operations and warehouse green project for Yakama Power, a tribal-owned utility in Toppenish, Wash.; a complex of senior housing for the Yurok Housing Authority in Crescent City, Calif., that will be both green and reflective of the Yurok culture,” Monroe said. “It will have sustainable and durable features as well as a state of the art heating system using ground source heat pumps as well as solar and will include solar electricity as well. The site will also have several working wind turbines.”

For more information, visit www.greennativecouncil.com.