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HBAs Finding Green Building Programs Recruit Members
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Open for tours this spring, a green home from Carolina Country Builders. | Preparing to launch its new green home building program this fall, the Home Builders Association of Durham, Orange and Chatham Counties in North Carolina is already discovering the power of green as a membership recruitment device.
Efforts to initiate the program began this spring on May 20 and 21 with a parade of green homes featuring tours of 12 projects by custom and production builders in the association ranging in price from $179,000 to $2.2 million.
That was followed by a June 27 association seminar introducing green building concepts. It was heavily attended by 85 builders and half a dozen of them used the opportunity to join the association, a sign of growing interest in the community in the growing national movement to sustainability in residential construction practices, according to Executive Vice President Nick Tennyson.
The spring green building tour garnered feature stories and previews in the local press, and another has been scheduled in the autumn.
The North Carolina members are using the NAHB Model Green Home Building Guidelines, a tool for local HBAs interested in establishing voluntary green building programs. The guidelines can be customized for regional differences, such as giving more weight to water conservation measures in the arid Albuquerque, N.M. area.
The Durham-Orange-Chatham Green Building Council has developed a score sheet to rate the homes of program participants and is working now to decide what materials builders will need to submit to receive green certification for their homes.
The association has received technical and marketing assistance from the Green Building Initiative and is reaching out to the local association of real estate agents for the preparation of educational materials for brokers. “We want to explain to them how to separate the wheat from the chaff,” Tennyson said.
The HBA must also decide whether to consider third-party certification of green homes and determine administrative and certification costs.
HBA green building programs based on the NAHB guidelines are up and running in St. Louis, Albuquerque, Kansas City and Houston, and 10 other associations are in the process of developing them.
For more information, e-mail Calli Schmidt at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8132.
 ‘Residential Green Building SmartMarket Report’ Analyzes Green Building Trends
“Residential Green Building SmartMarket Report,” available through BuilderBooks.com, addresses the growing trends and opportunities in green home building.
The report provides the results of market research conducted by McGraw-Hill Construction and NAHB about green building in home construction.
To view or purchase this publication online, click here, or call 800-223-2665.
‘Building Greener Neighborhoods’ Available at BuilderBooks.com
“Building Greener Neighborhoods,” available through Digital Delivery at BuilderBooks.com, shows those involved in building new communities the advantages and rewards of saving, planting and transplanting more trees in their developments.
The examples are drawn from decades of experience of land developers, home builders and urban foresters.
To download this publication, click here, or call 800-223-2665.
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