The following facts are compiled from sources such as the Environmental Protection Agency, National Home Builder's Association, International Congress of Building Officials, the World Health Organization, Core (Aspen)...and other sources.

Of all our human functions...it is obvious from what follows here...that our acts of building, the way we do it, the resources we use, the environments we create, the efficiency with which they use the energy we generate...make building one of the biggest (probably the biggest) impacting acts we have on the world around us.

We are at the beginning of a new millenium and a complete change in building ethics and techniques for the 21st century...thank you for being part of that new beginning....a beginning that can and will change these facts in the years to come.

The Facts:

**We live in one of the fastest growing regions in the United States.

**Coloradoans rank growth as their highest concern about their communities today...the environment is second (Norwest Bank public survey 1996)

**Our built environment (homes, schools, offices, etc.) consumes 40% of America's energy output, 60% of its electricity and 40% of total annual materials output.

**Average size of the American household has doubled since 1949. (now 2500sqft)

**In the next 50 years, we will produce more buildings than have been built in human history to date.

**In the last 130 years we have consumed 90% of the old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. Had this not been stopped, they would have vanished in another 7 yrs.

**The average American home consumes 14,000 board feet of lumber (one square foot of wood one inch thick)....leaving a football field of clearcut forest for each home built.

**The single most effective thing we can do for the environment today is live in smaller, more space and energy efficient dwellings and businesses.

**26-40% of our community landfills are construction debris and discarded buildings.

**In the year 2,000 the Uniform Building Code will become the International Building Code...requiring the rest of the world to build with the inefficiency we do. It is estimated that it will take 4 planets the size of this one to sustain the resource impact of that move. It will make the 4,000 year old tradition of mud huts and adobe architecture in Africa Illegal.

**Our codes are based on research and standards developed by the American Society of Timber Manufacturers.

**$13 billion per year is lost through building cracks in the US...$150/ home.

**70-94% of the electricity in Colorado (Tri-State Generation) comes from coal.

**8% of America's energy comes from renewable sources.

**Each of us burns 50,000# of coal per year in energy consumption...our body weight in coal every 7 days.

**The average American Home produces 25,000# Co2 per year.

**Each kilowatt hour on your utility bill represents 1#of coal and 2# Co2-which stays in the atmosphere for 100 years.

**Coal fired electrical generation is the world's largest contributor to global warming (co2 primarily)

**The average American consumes the energy content of a lightening bolt daily (1 million BTU's)

**35% of greenhouse gases come from our buildings.

**15% of Americans have some degree of Environmental illness from cumulative exposure to carcinogens and toxins (many present in building materials and carpets).

**4-8% of Americans are sensitized to formaldehyde- a solvent present in clothing, upholstry, drapery, paints, carpets, cabinets, adhesives and cleaning products.

**80%of the Average American's life is spent indoors

**We spend a third of our lives in our bedrooms.

**Indoor air pollution is recognized as one of the most serious health risks to Americans today.

**90% of all EPA regulated toxins are more prevalent indoors than out.

**30% of all American homes contain toxic levels sufficient to create Environmental Illness.

**The U.S. Navy has documented ELF (part of the EMF-electromagnetic fields from powerlines, appliances, tv's, wiring and computers) to alter the behavior of cells, tissues, organs, organisms, hormone levels, cell chemistry, bone growth, cell differentiation, RNA synthesis brain waves, DNA transcription, cell aging and diseases.

**Recent studies have added tripling of susceptability to alzheimer's disease and 1.5-1.8 times cancer risk to those whose occupations expose them to EMF...to the already known increased risks of leukemia, breast cancer and brain tumors.

**Exposure to a 300 miligaus EMF will slow the human heart beat 3 beats per minute cumulatively for the first four minutes of exposure. This is a common field strength associated with power lines or transformers