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Green Home First to Use NAHB Guidelines in a Subdivision
 The green home building movement received a major boost on March 13 with an announcement by Cherokee Investment Partners that it is building a demonstration home under the NAHB Model Green Home Building Guidelines that will be the first of its kind in a traditional subdivision.
The acquisition firm, which is a world leader in sustainable revitalization of environmentally impaired properties, said that its Mainstream GreenHome has been designed to look and function as a traditional home and will be used to persuade conventional builders and the home buying public to embrace green building on a national level. It is being built by Corban Homes. The announcement was made in Albuquerque, N.M. in conjunction with the NAHB Green Building Conference.
"Cherokee's commitment to the environment matched with their energy for green construction make them a perfect fit for creating a mainstream green house," said NAHB President David Pressly. "They are coming into the project with their builder just as any traditional home builder would, facing the same issues anyone else would, and they are going to prove that green building isn't so radical and that those hundreds of green decisions are important to our environment and the future of home building."
“We have an opportunity to influence large-scale development and vertical construction,” said Tom Darden, CEO of Cherokee. “Starting with the tens of thousands of homes that will be built on the sites we currently own, we have launched our Green Initiative and …this seems like something we should have been doing years ago.”
The 4,000-square-foot house itself, according to Jonathan Philips, senior director of Cherokee, is being built by a builder who hasn’t built green before on a lot that is not optimal for building green. “We are trying to learn about the economics of a large-scale project,” he said, and are looking for an approach to green building “that may be effective on a subdivision basis.”
As a firm that specializes in brownfield redevelopment, Philips indicated that Cherokee is hot in pursuit of sustainability, smart growth and environmentally sensitive land planning. “We have been certified,” he said, “and we take our fiduciary responsibility to the environment very seriously.”
“Our focus is on products and techniques that appeal functionally and aesthetically to the average American home buyer,” said Brad Wood, project manager of Cherokee’s Mainstream GreenHome.
Wood described several sustainable features that are being incorporated into the home:
- A ground source heat pump is expected to help decrease the home’s heating and cooling costs by as much as 75%, augmented by spray-in foam insulation that creates a highly insulated building shell to minimize heating and cooling loads. The attic and crawlspace will be unvented, yet insulated and conditioned, to improve energy performance while improving the overall air quality of the home. Energy Star-certified appliances, windows and roofing will also help minimize the home’s energy consumption.
- Helping to reduce water use by 50% over a conventional home, a rainwater catchment system will collect, filter and store rainwater from the roof for irrigation and non-potable uses such as toilets and laundry. An interlocking system of porous, permeable pavement crates will store storm water and release it over time to allow for natural absorption.
- Structural softwood and interior hardwood products will use sustainable woods certified through various national certification programs.
- Photovoltaics will be used to generate a portion of the home’s energy needs. A unique solar thermal hot water system on the roof will meet most of the home’s hot water needs. Also, waste heat from the geo-source HVAC system will be recycled into free hot water.
Whirlpool is providing all of the appliances for the home, said Butch Gaudette, the manufacturer’s director of trade relations, including Gladiator garage work products and an Energy Star-rated KitchenAid® refrigerator and Duet® laundry.
The GreenHome will be located near Cherokee’s headquarters in Raleigh, N.C. Initial grading and foundation construction have already begun, and the official groundbreaking for the home is scheduled for April 3.
Non-subdivision homes incorporating NAHB’s green guidelines have been built in State College, Pa. and Albuquerque, according to Ray Tonjes, chairman of the NAHB Green Building Subcommittee.
For more information on green home building resources at NAHB, e-mail Calli Schmidt, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8132.
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