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Finding the Right Shade of Green
Green building is among the fastest growing trends in homebuilding today. “Green building will reach its tipping point by 2007 using conservative estimates… [meaning] the rest of the industry will be forced to follow, and the green homes of today will become the standard homes of tomorrow,” explains Harvey Bernstein of McGraw Hill in the recently published joint NAHB and McGraw-Hill study, the Residential Green Building SmartMarket Report. A NAHB report released in early June, 2007 reported a more than 50 percent increase since 2004 in the number of green homes “certified by voluntary, builder-supported green building programs around the country”.
The Green building movement can be seen as having four ‘shades’: individuals, builders, the U.S. Government, and the earth. The first and darkest of the greens is the individual. This is because building green has only come about due to the efforts of individuals. Customer demands for environmentally friendly homes and building practices resulted in the first green homes of today. Individual homebuyers may choose to build green for a number of different reasons: the environment, long-term investment, savings on utilities, and increased quality of life. A recent interview with Dr. William E. Avera, the owner of a green home in Dripping Springs, TX, reveals some of the attitudes motivating the customers of the green homebuilding movement. “We chose to build the house for a few reasons,” he explains, “a general ‘save the planet’ feeling, a superior quality home, and to some extent, long-term economics…I figured energy prices would keep going up.” People must choose to purchase green products and live a green life for the movement to be successful. Without individuals buying green products and houses, manufacturers and builders will have no incentive to develop green products and practices.
It is extremely unlikely that U.S. homebuyers will reign in their excitement and interest in green building. Still, Mr. Avera suggests that homebuyers “[build green] to have an environmentally friendly and comfortable house,” not, as many people think, to save money. His experiences, and his doctorate in economics from UNC Chapel Hill, tell him that there are a few problems with people choosing to build green solely on promises of long-term cost savings. First, the industry has failed so far to eliminate upfront extra costs for building green. A STLtoday.com article reports there is still a “cost premium for going green” that many people cannot or are unwilling to pay (Why 'green' building is gaining ground in commercial projects). And while money may be saved on utility bills over time to equal this initial cost, Dr. Avera points out that such a position assumes that “future energy costs will continue to go up”. A discovery or breakthrough that substantially lowers energy costs would decrease the pecuniary benefit of energy saving devices to the consumer. Furthermore, specialty green building appliances often incorporate cutting edge technologies that can be difficult to repair or replace. Dr. Avera reported that the only complaints he had with his green building experience where the original cost (roughly 30-50 percent more expensive than a similar non-green house built in 2000) and the inconvenience of green appliance repairs, since it often takes a long time to secure an appointment with one of a small number of specialty technicians, who then occasionally have to wait a long time for specialty parts and materials.
This is not meant to scare potential green homeowners away. Rather, being fully aware of the realities of green building will likely result in more satisfied customers and the faster evolution of green products. Indeed, Dr. Avera enjoys and is fully satisfied with his green home, and would still choose to build green if he had the choice to do over again. He recommends that people considering green homes “really think about it and plan well,” since he sees “80% of the benefit of green building” as coming from simple things involved in the planning process, such as orientation and location. Sara Gutterman, co-founder and partner of Green Builder, a leading development, consulting, and media company in the green building sector, expressed this same idea in a recent interview, saying “planning and design is one of the most impactful components of building green”. Besides, depending on the type of green structure and material chosen, changing plans in mid build can be extremely costly or even impossible in green homebuilding projects. Overall, Dr. Avera sees the quality and comfort of his home as unparalleled by traditional building practices, but believes that he has paid more for these benefits. Most importantly, however, he has decreased his environmental footprint, and you cannot put a price tag on that.
Manufacturers and builders are the second shade of green. They are necessary to supply the green products and services, but, in that they cater to consumer demand, they are a lighter shade of green than individuals. Manufacturers and builders do not simply follow the requests of their customers, however. More and more they are providing the fuel that is keeping the green building phenomenon growing. A great example of this is NAHB’s Model Green Home Building Guidelines. NAHB has partnered with the International Codes Council (ICC) to get a National Green Building Standard approved by the ANSI Board of Standards Review. Homebuilders have accomplished an incredible amount for green building through voluntary programs, initiatives, and guidelines. Brian Catalde, President of NAHB, pointed out that the 50 percent increase in voluntarily certified green homes since 2004 “is yet another indication that market-driven programs, not mandates, are the best way to encourage growth in green building”. “The success of voluntary green building programs around the country speaks to the industry’s commitment to reducing the operating costs of homes, conserving water and energy, improving resource-efficiency and minimizing construction waste,” states a NAHB press release. The National Green Building Standard will ideally “provide builders all over the country with common ground – a green baseline that everyone can agree on,” rather than replacing the highly successful, localized efforts.
By realizing that the demand for green products and services is potentially astronomical, homebuilders have engaged in researching, developing, and encouraging green building efforts. Firms have identified the growing green building trend, and are now not only catering to it, but actively promoting its growth. Sara Gutterman of Green Builder helps explain why green building is gaining so much momentum with so many different builders. “Every builder,” she says, “from the most humble, affordable builder to the highest, custom builder can build green cost-effectively. Obviously budget influences how fancy your ‘bells and whistles’ can be, but even smaller, lower-end builders can use passive solar design, or they can think about things like where they source their materials.” So, with green building options available and feasible for every size homebuilder, businesses across the nation are jumping on the bandwagon.
The fact that U.S. homebuilders and homebuilder suppliers are embracing green building with open arms is readily apparent. The New York Times recently reported (Can They Realy Call the Chainsaw Eco-Friendly?) on Home Depot’s new “Eco Options” marketing campaign, which received over 60,000 products to review from all types of companies. Ron Jarvis, the Home Depot senior vice president in charge of Eco Options, allowed only 2,500 of those products to qualify. “Most of what you see today in the green movement is voodoo marketing,” quotes the Times. Both the fact that Home Depot is launching a green product line, and that so many companies are making efforts to promote their products as green, speak to the truly comprehensive nature of the trend. A recent article from Builder and Developer magazine, Counting down to Zero1, also commented on this idea, quoting Dr. Malcolm Davies, CEO of Michelle Kaufmann Designs (MKD). “The manufacturers are getting really serious about green building,” quotes the article, “and the range of sustainable products we’re going to have available to us over the next several years will increase dramatically…talking to the manufacturers we see that they are allocating a lot of their development effort toward creating sustainable products in greater variety.” While some of these manufacturers will undoubtedly employ ‘voodoo marketing’, the internet is a valuable tool that can enable homebuyers to steer clear of ‘greenwashed’ products (products that purport to be environmentally friendly without actually being very ‘green’). Further evidencing the claim that the homebuilding industry, and construction industry in general, is turning green are the huge number of localized green building associations and councils, as well as the plethora of new green building publications.
The third ‘shade of green’ is the United States Government. Research efforts conducted by or funded through the U.S. Department of Energy (D.O.E.) have had huge impacts on sustainable technology and green building. In 2001, a study from the National Academy of Sciences examined 17 research and development programs in energy efficiency and 22 programs in fossil energy funded by the D.O.E. “These programs yielded economic returns of an estimated $40 billion from an investment of $13 billion,” according to the study’s press release. Additionally, “the committee’s study emphasized that D.O.E. research has produced large public benefits that cannot easily be reduced to dollar terms. Large environmental gains were identified chiefly in the fossil energy arena, where two technologies…decreased nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere by more than 26 million tons and sulfur dioxide by 2 million tons. The resulting environmental savings translated to more than $60 billion in damage and mitigation costs that were avoided.”
Besides funding research that results in technology improvements, the government has imposed standards and requirements for buildings. While few if any of these have reached deeply into the residential sector, movement in that direction is evident. For example, Massachusetts just passed a law regulating the amount of greenhouse gases that commercial buildings are allowed to put off. It is not such a stretch to see these regulations extended to homes in the near future, and to see additional states follow in Massachusetts’ footsteps. With typical homes putting off as much greenhouse gases as several cars, it seems logical that they will, eventually, come under some type of government regulation. Additionally, government officials, economists, and defense strategists have all commented on the nation’s pressing need for energy independence. Building green benefits our nation not simply environmentally, but also defensively and economically by helping the nation come closer to achieving relative energy independence. This last fact gives the government even more incentive to start promoting or insisting upon energy conservation requirements for new homes.
The fourth shade of green is the world which encompasses the nation. This is the ‘ideal’ of green building, the real ‘point’ of the whole effort, if you will. There are several things about the world that need to be highlighted. First, as an industrial and technological leader in the world, the U.S. is in the best position of any one nation to develop and spread feasible, sustainable building practices and materials around the globe. Substantial and effective reduction of pollutants on a global level will only be possible with the aid of other countries, and the United States is possibly the only country with the resources and manpower to be able to lead the world in such an effort. Also, because we contribute such a substantial portion of the world’s pollution and energy use, reigning in ourselves, even if other countries do not follow suit, could have a noticeable beneficial affect on the global environment. Once measurable positive results have been achieved through American efforts, others may be inspired to follow the U.S. example. All four aspects of green building must come into play and mix in the right proportions, and if this is accomplished, the world will witness the birth of the most beautiful shade of green it has ever seen, and it will be that color that defines the future of building.
Sara Gutterman is co-founder and partner of Green Builder®, a leading development, consulting, and media company in the green building sector. She is also a contributer and editor of Green Builder Magazine, the publication of Green Builder. Please visit them at www.greenbuildermag.com.
1Kosienski, Chris. "Counting Down to Zero." Builder and Developer May 2007: 36 - 42.
Feel free to contact Mark Avera at MAvera@TopBuildingJobs.com.
Read more about Green Building on www.ConstructionJobsBlog.com!
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