Residentially Green
Santa Fe, Calif.
– one of the country’s largest solar-powered communities, from Comstock Homes,
now has 60+ residences complete. The homes feature SunTile integrated PV, it says here.
Sunset on green guidelines
– as the National Green Building Standard (ICC-700) is now in place (it was
posted in January 2008), the NAHB’s Model Green Home Building Guidelines are
being allowed to fade out, Builder reported.
The greened house effect
– a website that claims one can slash energy use in
a home by 50% to 90%. See the video featured on the home page.
The value: Not yet recognized
– from a front-page roundup story on the recent Green Building Conference
in Nation’s Building News (5/31), the official weekly from the National
Association of Home Builders:
Energy efficiency, according to speakers at the conference,
remains the most salient aspect of the industry’s move to sustainability, and
is the one benefit that’s most easily recognized by consumers. Unfortunately,
the prospect of sharp reductions in monthly utility bills has not gained much
attention from the lending community, and mortgages recognizing those savings
remain mostly an idea whose potential has been largely unrealized.
Another ongoing challenge is that the concept of green housing
is not well understood by the general public, conference panelists said, and
a significant share of prospective buyers are actually turned off by it. Green
builders were advised to market the specific benefits of their homes rather
than selling green, and to avoid providing too much technical information, which
can quickly go over the heads of buyers and discourage sales.
The value: What’s it worth?
– “appraisal communities and lenders have been slow to acknowledge builders,
buyers, and owners of green homes,” a speaker at the NAHB Green Building Conference
maintained. He urged his listeners to go further: “You have every right to ask
for a competent appraiser who knows about energy-efficient and green balding.
You should demand it.” Coverage from EcoHome.
What’s the (green) priority? – a featureon
Grist.org gets into what’s green and what’s not – and personal choices – when
it comes to building green homes. A paragraph:
“Tangled up in green” gets at the overwhelming array of eco-friendly
building options. A given structure might have high-efficiency appliances,
state-of-the-art insulation, a solar water heater, eco-certified hardwood
floors, a permeable driveway, indigenous plants in its landscaping, easy access
to a light-rail station and grocery store, and on and on. All these elements
are well and good, but some are energy-efficiency features, others save water
or improve its drainage, and another protects tropical forests halfway around
the world. And some are definitely more significant than others.