It’s a silent, but colorful metamorphosis..

Even if slow-growth advocates could not have their entire agendas accepted at face value by the homebuilders of America, they could at least embrace the idea of the nation’s developers’ increasing respect for the color green while building America’s homes. It should be noted that building green is not necessarily described as an all-or-nothing proposition. When carefully implemented, even the most modest measures can result in significant conservation of resources.

In the National Association of Home Builders’ new publication, Building Greener, Building Better: The Quiet Revolution, the growth of green building is showcased by examples of progressive, yet simple techniques already being used around the country. Whereas the building industry may have resisted environmentally correct building practices in the past with skepticism, thinking them too costly or a sacrifice to their would-be homebuyers’ comfort, convenience or style, today’s homebuilders have begun to fling the doors to green building wide open, using it in their marketing materials to attract today’s concerned homebuyers.

Touted as one of the most significant developments in home building, green building is approached along several paths:

• Land planning and design techniques that preserve the natural environment without disturbing the land includes site development that also reduces erosion, minimizes paved surfaces and runoff and protects greenery, most notably trees.
• Water conservation in indoor and outdoor environments
• Heating and cooling (HVAC) energy efficiency, as well as more environmentally friendly appliances and lighting
• The selection of recyclable, durable building materials
• Waste reduction by reusing and recycling during the construction process and throughout the life of the home

Neighborhoods where techniques such as these have already met with resounding approval and success are showcased in the NAHB booklet. They include Golden, Colorado’s Wonderland Hill, where neo-traditionalism and green building go hand-in-hand. Built in the 1970s, the planned community blended a mixture of attached and single-family homes to create a diverse housing market with walkable streets that lend to environmentally and socially sustainable lifestyles.

Homebuilder Greg Schwinn of Lincoln, Nebraska, prides himself in building new home communities that encompass more efficient street layouts for neighborhood connectivity, while practicing retention and slowing of the flow of clean storm water, eliminating the need for costly underground storm water systems.

Instead of land planners and developers designing product and pricing first, they now conduct elaborate site research to assess natural features as amenities and then see what remains. Ken Dierks of theVirginia Beach, Virginia’s Landmark Design Group, relates that the real trend is the whole idea of heritage and preserving a sense of place in the grand scheme of things.

Green building recently figured prominently at the recent 2002 Pacific Coast Builders (PCBC) Show, one of the building industry’s mega-exhibitions held in San Francisco each year. Among the booths touting green building programs were Earth Advantage® and New Energy Works, along with Solar Energy firms BP Solar, Atlantis Energy, California Energy Commission/Renewable energy, Laing Thermotech, EcoEnergies, and AstroPower, Inc.

Hayward Lumber, specializing in environmentally correct wood products (instead of the depletion of the forest primeval) was also on hand, as was giant Weyerhauser, who introduced its new high-grade hardwood floors made of Eucalyptus hybrids with a fast-growth system that allows it to produce thirty times the volume of wood per acre than traditional forest industries.

A pre-conference PCBC workshop called, “Building Green in a Black and White World” was held by Centex project manager Trece Harder, along with David Johnston, president of What’s Working, and Davis Energy Group’s David Springer. In this workshop, attendee homebuilders were taught how to identify their buyers’ desire for green homes and how much those buyers may be willing to pay for the privilege, how to select products that will sell more homes because of the green element, and how to develop a marketing strategy that maximizes green benefits. The workshop used the recently developed Alameda (CA) County Green Building Guidelines as a case study. This study’s results have evidently already begun to radiate wide-ranging procedural implementations in the future of green homebuilding.

Some interesting and detailed green Web sites include www.GreenConcepts.com and www.EnergyBuilder.com.

Homebuilders are increasingly embracing green building practices as not only reasonable and desirable, but also as necessary to the future of the industry, as consumers become more aware of resource-saving technologies and more safeguards are put in place to preserve the natural environment.

Published: July 1, 2002

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.