Quigley Tours Chicago’s Greenest Home
CHICAGO -- Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) and representatives from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) joined Jacek Helenowski to announce his home as the greenest in Chicago. The home recently received LEED Platinum certification, earning 119 points, placing it among the most energy efficient and affordably built of the approximately 10,000 LEED-certified homes in the United States.
"I am proud to have such an achievement in green building in my district," said Quigley. "My hope is that this is the future of construction, because as the Helenowski family has shown us, it is a boon to the local economy, saves on energy costs, and is terrific for our environment."
About the Home
The home is one of the first net-zero energy homes in Chicago, using renewables to produce as much energy as it consumes over the course of a year. With construction costs of around $80/square foot, the home also provides an example of affordable green building.
Key features include soybean insulation, ultra-efficient lighting made in Illinois, motorized blinds to control heating and cooling, a spa heat retention system to store extra heat, reclaimed wood from a burned Chicago building, and native species used for the landscaping. The dry-wall is made almost entirely from recycled gypsum from coal burning power plants in East Chicago.
Additional highlights include a vegetative green roof that reduces water runoff during rain and a geothermal heating system to heat and cool the home from ground temperatures. Construction began in 2004 and was finished earlier this year. Helenowski, along with his wife and daughter, moved into the home this month.
As a Cook County Commissioner, Quigley introduced and passed the Cook County Green Buildings Ordinance, requiring Cook County to follow LEED standards for Green Buildings in the construction of any new county owned building.
In his first term in Congress, Quigley has made environmental protection one of his top priorities. He has defended the Environmental Protection Agency's right to regulate greenhouse gases, spoke out against the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, and petitioned Canadian leaders to adopt a ban on oil and gas drilling in the Great Lakes.