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Thursday, May 17, 2012
Feature: June 2007
Corporate Certified
Are eco-friendly homes headed for the mainstream in the Capital Region?
Story by Joanna Corman
Real estate agent Morgan Johnson searched for more than a year before buying his first house. He dismissed Natomas after learning about the flood risk. He let Land Park go after learning that most of those houses are at least 50 years old. The established neighborhood with aesthetically pleasing architecture and tree-lined streets wasn’t enough to keep him from worrying about pouring money into energy bills, maintenance and modernization of an older home. Finally, Johnson decided to take a serious look in Rocklin where his employer, Grupe Co., was building a new community.
In February 2006, Stockton-based Grupe opened one of the first would-be certified green subdivisions in the Sacramento area. The company is building 144 super energy-efficient solar-powered homes that developers hope will be certified by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes, a program developed by the nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council. The program debuted in August 2005 as a pilot project and expects to officially launch in September.
Johnson says he bought his 2,170-square-foot home in part because he thinks its energy-efficient features will help its appreciation value. But he also thought about the environment.
“I think builders have a corporate responsibility to build green,” he says. “More builders need to take the initiative and do what it takes to build homes in a more environmental, sustainable way.”
There isn’t a consensus on how to build a green home, though most professionals agree that an eco-friendly house is one that reduces environmental impact during the construction process and for the duration of its life.
By the beginning of this year, Treasure Homes in Natomas and Grupe in Rocklin had built a few dozen certified green homes in the Capital Region. Sacramento-based Cambridge Homes broke ground on 86 more green homes in Elk Grove in March and the Roseville-based Warmington Homes California is building some in Galt. This month, Pardee Homes is expected to break ground on more green homes in Natomas. D.R. Horton’s Sacramento division built its first LEED home in Lincoln last year, and this year it’s building its first LEED subdivision in Redding.
Building experts say this is just the beginning of a major change in the local homebuilding industry. In the past two years, advocacy groups have launched two new green building programs locally and UC Davis Extension started a green building certificate program.
Several factors are helping green homebuilding gain traction: utility rebates, state and local tax incentives and governments adopting policies that promote solar and energy-efficient buildings. In addition, building technology is improving and land is plentiful, which could prime the region for significant changes in the way homes are built. Though in its infancy in the Capital Region, green building in the residential sector is heading toward the mainstream and will likely become the industry standard, local and national experts say.
“All the pieces of the puzzle are starting to align … and as soon as those things are implemented, we’re going to see a huge change in awareness and knowledge and expertise available in the region,” says Brian Gitt, executive director of Build It Green, a Berkeley nonprofit that introduced a green homebuilding program to the region this year.
Still, don’t expect most new homes to be green, says Don Mull, program director for California Green Builder, the first statewide green building program. Within five years, Mull estimates that most homes in California built above code will be green. But that’s only about 15 to 20 percent of homes built by production builders, he says. Because of the cost, Mull doesn’t see a surge of homes being built to certified standards.
“There’s only so much market for more expensive homes, particularly in a state where we really do have an affordability crisis right now,” says Mull, whose program is managed by ConSol, an energy consulting firm in Stockton. The program is affiliated with the California Building Industry Association and had more than 5,000 homes enrolled as of Jan. 1. Mull expects an additional 4,500 to enroll this year.
“Whenever you ask someone to change their way of doing things,
it’s only human nature to resist.”
— Mark Berman, principal, Davis Energy Group
Although green home programs sprang up a decade ago, construction started taking off nationwide in the last year, says Jay Hall, acting program manager for the LEED for Homes program. At the beginning of the year, Hall counted about 80 local and regional green homebuilding programs nationwide, nearly double from three years ago. In 2006, McGraw-Hill Construction, which conducted a survey of builders with the National Association of Home Builders, estimated that by year-end 2007, the industry will have reached a tipping point when more than half of builders will incorporate green building practices into their homes.
California also has experienced exponential growth, building experts say. In 2000, no California cities had adopted their own residential green building guidelines, and certification training for building professionals didn’t exist, according to Gitt.
Sacramento-area builders have embraced building environmentally friendly homes to varying degrees. Some are leading the industry, while others are just beginning to research and make changes. But exactly how to build an earth-friendly home is not clear-cut.
Some builders’ homes may not reach certified levels, though the builders are opting for green building materials and techniques. To complicate matters, there is no standard industry-wide definition of what constitutes a green house. However, building experts tend to agree on several principles.
Green homes should be built in a way that reduces construction waste by reusing existing materials and recycling debris. They should minimize the amount of energy, water and wood used during construction and the home’s lifetime. They should also use materials that aren’t harmful to people or the planet, such as wood from managed forests or paint low in volatile organic compounds.
Some definitions of green building go beyond individual homes. To architect David Mogavero, principal with Mogavero Notestine Associates, in midtown Sacramento, transportation is the most important part of environmentally friendly construction in California — and it often gets left out. Encouraging mass transit through high density, he says, is far more critical than the types of materials used to build a home.
“It’s really cool and sexy to talk about bamboo floors … and photovoltaics on the roof. But if you don’t address the transportation piece of the equation, then it’s an oxymoron,” he says.
Builders who embrace green tend to do it on a project-by-project basis because they want to know their homes will sell. They’re doing it for a variety of reasons. For some, it’s the right thing to do for the environment. For others, reducing waste and cutting construction costs makes good business sense — as does cutting customers’ energy and water bills.
After learning they could save up to 70 percent on their monthly utility bills, Larry and Liz Brittain paid the deposit on a Grupe house. “Believe it or not, we actually bought the house that night,” Larry says. That was May 2006, after they had viewed homes by other builders in Rocklin. During the heat wave two months later, the Brittains received an $86 electric bill while friends in conventional homes reported bills of $500.
Although green building can save builders money, it can also be more expensive. The materials and technologies might not always cost more, but the training does.
“Whenever you ask someone to change their way of doing things, it’s only human nature to resist,” says Mark Berman, a business development principal at the Davis Energy Group, which oversees the LEED for Homes pilot program in California and Nevada.
Berman says he’s hearing resistance not to building green but to making too many changes at once. “It boils down to a matter of training and willingness to change habits,” he says.
UC Davis Extension launched a commercial and residential green building training program in September to prepare those interested in changing their habits and learning about eco-friendly construction. The Green Building and Sustainable Design Certificate program has exceeded enrollment expectations. It emphasizes green building and sustainability that looks at the micro to the macro levels, including the material of a water faucet and how a home fits in with regional planning issues.
The program emphasizes sustainability because a green home built on a floodplain or away from mass transit, for example, defeats the purpose, says Jeff Loux, director of the school’s Land Use and Natural Resources program. With the fast pace of construction in this region “there’s a lot of opportunity to do some good,” Loux says.
The U.S. Green Building Council, known for its commercial certification program, introduced the LEED residential program nationally with the goal of redefining and standardizing the definition of green homebuilding. The program is geared toward builders in the top 25 percent of the market — those who want to construct homes that make a measurable difference.
As of Feb. 1, more than 700 homes, apartments, condos and townhomes in Northern California had been registered with LEED, according to Davis Energy Group; nationwide, 4,200 homes had been registered.
“It clearly seems the market is looking for this,” Hall of LEED says. “It sounds kind of cliché, but I think people are starting to realize the choices they make have an impact, and people are looking to make better choices.”
LEED for Homes will be working in tandem with another new green construction program, GreenPoint Rated, which was launched statewide in September by Build It Green in Berkeley. Both programs use third-party testing to independently verify a home meets certain standards. By early March, a 200-unit development in Chico had enrolled.
Gitt of Build It Green is spending 2007 establishing the program’s foundation in the Sacramento area. His goal is to create a pipeline of building professionals knowledgeable in earth-friendly building practices. The group wants to have 10,000 green homes built statewide by the end of 2008.
He is working with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which will host a training session this year to certify those who want to evaluate GreenPoint Rated homes. The utility is helping fund a local public agency council that will allow officials to share information and best practices. SMUD also looks to host a training program for professionals that would target architects, engineers, builders and others in the homebuilding industry who want to gain green expertise.
While the region sets up a framework to encourage green residential building, the housing slump has hurt construction starts. But the market slowdown is not having a wholly negative impact on green building, builders and other experts say.
Some builders say that during a slow time, they can’t afford to make changes that experts estimate could cost as much as 5 percent more per home; others say less demand for new homes is giving them time to look into making changes.
An eco-friendly label can differentiate a builder from its competitors, as Grupe is finding out. At the end of February, Grupe — one of nine builders in Rocklin’s Whitney Ranch master-planned community — had outsold its competitors by at least 18 homes, and in some cases more than double that number.
Consumers aren’t asking for these homes in large numbers, builders say. Customers tend to get more excited by upgrades they can see, such as granite countertops, rather than soy-based insulation.
“I wish I could say to you that it was such a strong trend that it makes us want to change the way we do everything,” says Joyce Mason, vice president of marketing for Los Angeles-based Pardee Homes, which plans to enter the Sacramento market this month with California Green Builder houses. “It hasn’t become that strong of a demand point yet — but we are starting to see it change.”
A few bucks for an electric bill?
Rick and Monique Moniz traded the Bay Area for Davis in August 2002 and immediately felt the heat.
“When we first moved in it would get hot as a firecracker,” Rick says. So the Monizes spent three years making their house more energy and water efficient, ripping out their lawn, and installing exterior shade screens and an insulated front door and shutters. They removed the heat-absorbing carpet and cleaned and wrapped the ducts. Ten days after completing the work, a fire destroyed their home.
“We both said to each other, ‘We’re going to make the best of this situation,’” Monique says. “And the very first thing that came to mind is, ‘We’re going to build a green home.’”
Rick and Monique faced resistance from building professionals who didn’t always know which green products to use or how to install them, and from their family, who questioned why they wanted to spend more to build a better house. But taking care of the environment has always been important to the couple, who have two teenage sons. Although cost prevented them from making the three-bedroom, two-bath, 2,300-square-foot house 100 percent green, most of it is.
They chose exterior siding made from recycled cement and wood, soy- and paper-based insulation, attic fans that turn on with the sun, and a tankless water heater that saves gas and water by providing hot water on demand.
They also had “low-e” windows installed, which block sun rays and prevent winter heat loss, and put in Energy Star appliances, crushed granite and flagstone instead of lawn, and glues and caulking that emit no noxious fumes. Their cabinets and floors come from sustainably harvested wood. They added solar tubes, a skylight and extra windows in the kitchen to maximize natural light.
The sun generates most of the home’s electricity, thanks to the solar panels on the 50-year roof. Although solar technology added about $20,000 to the cost of the $417,000 home, the couple installed the panels without intending to recoup the money.
“It’s not about what you are going to save financially,” Monique says. “It’s about what you are going to save ecologically.” Still, the savings on their electric bills haven’t hurt: In February, their bill was just $4.
—Joanna Corman
