|
Green Building Signals Big Changes Ahead for Housing
Leaders in the movement toward sustainability in housing and other industries told last month’s NAHB Green Building Conference in Dallas that the marketplace is in a period of transition and that home builders should be gearing up to fill demand for energy- and resource-efficient homes.
If builders don’t change on their own, they said, it is likely that the government will come in and force them to build sustainably.
“There is a perception that we’ve been doing it the same way so long we don’t want to change,” said Peter Yost, residential program manager for Building Green LLC in Battleboro, Vt. “But builders have changed the way they build,” he said, and in considering ways to deliver a green product they find themselves “in an experiment because we spend so little money researching how buildings work.”
Yost said that it shouldn’t be the responsibility of home builders to figure out how products work when they are assembled in the home, and builders need to share information and find available resources to help reduce the risks of venturing forth into unchartered territory.
Yost suggested that builders follow the example of apparel and outdoor equipment supplier L.L. Bean, which assumes responsibility for a product over its lifetime and is happy to replace a 15-year-old pair of boots that have performed unsatisfactorily so its researchers can take a look at them to determine what went wrong.
Green home builders should assume responsibility for their products for an extended period of time, he said, and they should establish a policy that enables them to return to the home after a few years to see how it is performing.
“We don’t know what’s in a lot of products, even the paint manufacturer who bought the components from different sources. We have to know a lot more about products we put into the home because of liability,” he said.
Yost recommended GreenBuildingAdvisor.com as a tool that builders can use; it enables people to work on the same project from several remote locations, he said, similar to how builders collaborate with architects.
Building Beautiful Homes People Want
Panelists looking at how they envision the future of green building noted that changing consumer attitudes are helping to move things along, but there is a long way to go. Higher costs have been a major obstacle, they said, although those costs are declining and will continue to do so as green becomes the industry norm, and home buyers, sales agents and appraisers still don’t fully understand the value of green.
“We have to lead by example, and build beautiful homes that people want,” said Michelle Kaufmann, founder of Michelle Kaufmann Designs, a full service architectural design firm based in the San Francisco area.
Kaufmann has displayed her homes at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere around the country so that builders and home owners can “see and experience” sustainable housing that is innovative and well designed.
“It is up to us to find solutions that make sustainable design a success in time and cost and are also easy,” she said. “People are confused about what to do to get the biggest bang for the buck. We need more data, but costs are coming down” and the premium for building green today is relatively small.
Remodeling is one area particularly ripe for innovation, Kaufmann said, and her concept of “designing for deconstruction” shows how homes can be made more flexible to accommodate the changing wants and needs of their owners.
“We make our designs to be as timeless as possible, but people will still want to change the countertop in 10 years,” she said. The solution is to design components so that a countertop can be removed from a home and reused somewhere else. A kitchen can be seen as a module and installed so that nothing is wasted when the home owner decides it’s time for something new and the kitchen is removed.
“People have been thinking of homes as a two-year investment, almost disposable, for the past 15 years,” she said. “Now they are thinking of homes as places where they will live with their families long-term.”
At a time when people are also looking for a new sense of community, Kaufmann said, shared gardens where residents can grow food is a popular green amenity, and they can even be located on rooftops.
Home owners are looking for neighborhoods where they can walk, she added, and builders will find the current climate conducive to increasing densities through both urban and suburban infill.
Kaufmann said if there were just one thing she could do to make every home in the country greener it would be adding energy and water meters to provide data on how much each resource is being used. Energy bills are abstract, she said, but when home owners can actually see what is being consumed in real time, then they can adjust their usage accordingly.
A New Way to Value Housing
Sara Gutterman, founder and CEO of Green Builder Media, LLC, said that green is at the center of the transformation now occurring in the housing market and that the transition won’t be that difficult to achieve as more and more companies adopt green strategies, bringing the prices of innovative products down as they are manufactured in greater volume.
“The short-term metric for the way we value housing is changing,” Gutterman said. In the future, housing won’t be able to compete on up-front costs or cost per square foot, she said, as long-term operating expenses and environmental externalities become increasingly important considerations.
In a new green economy, she added, manufacturers can expect to be held to “a new ethic of accountability” in which they will have to weigh the impact of their products throughout their life cycle, and incremental changes are already being made in response to shifting demand. Companies will need to examine how sustainability fits into every aspect of their business. “No green product can come from a brown company,” she said.
Doing Fine in a Down Economy
Don Ferrier, CGB, president of Ferrier Companies in Fort Worth, Texas, said that the evolution of his family’s business over the past 30 years or so illustrates how green home building found a receptive market even in its early days and has retained its strength during today’s difficult recession.
“We’re doing well,” Ferrier said. His company — which started using structural insulated panels in the mid-1980s and today specializes in building highly energy-efficient custom homes — lost two clients when the stock market collapsed last fall and has had to put two other projects on hold for a year.
However, this year he has finished two houses worth $1.1 million and he is working on a $500,000 commercial job building an efficient office building, his fourth project for that client. Ferrier also cited two new contracts worth $1 million and two other projects in the design phase.
Ferrier has gained publicity for his company by building a green home at a local trade show and through Heather’s Home, a house built on a modest budget by his 25-year-old daughter to be as green and energy-efficient as possible.
The story of the house seems to have traveled around the world, he said.
Ferrier characterized his job as listening to what his clients want, figuring out what it’s going to cost and then pulling the two together.
About three-fourths of his customers are baby boomers who are hiring him to build their last home; they are willing to pay more to make that home energy-efficient. Clients who are in their mid- to late-30s, on the other hand, decide to go green because it’s the right thing to do, he said.
For information on green building resources available from NAHB, e-mail Calli Schmidt, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8132.
 ‘National Green Building Standard’ Available at BuilderBooks.com
“The National Green Building Standard,” available through BuilderBooks.com, provides “green” practices that can be incorporated into multifamily and single-family new home construction, home remodeling and additions and site development.
The standard covers lot design, resource, energy and water efficiency; indoor environment quality; and owner education.
Currently the first and only ANSI-approved green building rating system, the National Green Building Standard is the benchmark for green homes.
To view or purchase this publication online, click here.
 The Future of Residential Construction Is Green
The Certified Green Professional (CGP) designation teaches builders, remodelers and other industry professionals techniques for incorporating green building principles into homes using cost-effective and affordable options.
Earning the CGP demonstrates to clients and peers your commitment to the best and latest in green building practices and techniques. More than 3,300 people have earned the CGPdesignation to date.
For more information, visit www.nahb.org/CGPinfo.
 ‘Build Green and Save’ Available at BuilderBooks.com
“Build Green and Save: Protecting the Earth and Your Bottom Line,” available through BuilderBooks.com, is a comprehensive, easy-to-read reference that shows builders how to identify and select green building materials; implement green construction techniques; explain the benefits of green housing and offer affordable green building solutions to consumers; and use resources wisely and reduce water and energy consumption.
To view or purchase this publication online, click here, or call 800-223-2665.
|
