Green Building for the Rest of Us
(Page 2 of 4)
November / December 2007
By Hannah Lobel, Utne Reader
Now the trick is to expand green building’s toehold in the market by winning over mainstream consumers and builders, and by making sure that as the appeal of green building grows, its standards aren’t watered down.
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“Everyone always asks, How much does green building cost?” says Dennis Creech, executive director of Southface Energy Institute, an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization that spreads the green gospel in the South’s construction industry. “We really need to flip the question and ask, How much more does traditional building cost you than green?”
To get that paradigm shift under way, Southface partnered with the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association (“strange bedfellows for sure,” says Creech) to create EarthCraft—a certification program that addresses the region’s unique environmental challenges, such as heat, moisture, and critters.
So far, EarthCraft has done an impressive job of convincing buyers and builders that spending a little extra money up front can save a lot down the road. In 2000, the first year EarthCraft began its monitoring process, eight homes made the grade. This year, that figure is expected to be around 2,500.
For home buyers, the benefits come in the form of lower energy and water costs, less maintenance, and cleaner air, to name a few. For builders, who don’t see a penny from lower utility bills, the pluses are less obvious but no less convincing. Builders tell Creech that their green-built homes have fewer callbacks—the warranty-ensured fixes that quickly erode profit margins. And they credit their green techniques with helping them stand out for quality and innovation in a field crowded by the mundane.
“It’s the same rationale of spending a little more for something that lasts longer,” says Michael Haynes, a Minnesota “EcoBroker”—a real estate agent who’s trained to help consumers navigate the green home market. Haynes teaches home buyers and sellers to understand green features not as added costs, but as added values. Energy Star appliances, native landscaping, strong insulation, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, nearby access to bike trails—these aren’t just environmental bonuses, they’re quality-of-life perks. And they can be a big draw, especially, says Haynes, in today’s weak housing market.
That sentiment is echoed across the field. Mick Dalrymple, a partner at a.k.a. Green, an environmental building store in Scottsdale, Arizona, and creator of the PBS television program Build It Green, explains that before the housing market went soft, builders didn’t have to pay much attention to the green fringe. Houses were selling before they could plant for-sale signs in the yards. Now there’s time for those builders to take a breath, look around, and figure out how to prove their merit in a tough market.