Annual Green Building Tour Begins at PCC Oct. 3

WINTERVILLE�The Fourth Annual Greenville Area Green Building Tour kicks off at Pitt Community College Oct. 3, giving the community a chance to see firsthand various styles and sizes of �green� building projects.

Held in conjunction with the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association�s 2009 Statewide Green Building and Solar Tour, the local event is scheduled to take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Next month�s tour is one of several scheduled in communities throughout the state in October, including Asheville, Boone, Charlotte and Durham. Last year�s Green Building & Solar Tour featured nearly 80 sites in 12 communities from the mountains to the coast over two weekends. Organizers of the 2009 tour expect it will be even larger and more successful.

According to Bill Hofler, a PCC Architectural Technology instructor who is helping to organize the Greenville tour, the local event will focus on energy efficiency, building science and renewable energy. It will feature three residential homes � one built with insulated concrete forms, one using passive solar architecture, and another with active solar systems (both solar hot water and photovoltaic panels).

Some of the topics to be discussed during the event include building a sustainable community, renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation, and the language of �green.�

The tour begins at PCC (corner of Memorial Drive and Fire Tower Road), where students from the college�s Construction and Industrial Technologies Division are building a pair of homes using new techniques in building science.

Directions to the other homes on tour will be available at PCC on the day of the event. All three featured homes are within 20 minutes of the college.

For more tour information on this year�s event, contact Karen Wagner by e-mail at wagnerk@ecu.edu or by phone at (252) 328-4980.

09/24/2009