There are numerous choices facing a homeowner who is considering building a new house or remodeling a house that is new to him or her. More and more these days, however, the choices are being expanded to include one more option: whether or not to build green.

Building green has been an option for the better part of two decades, but in years past the concept was a little hard to pin down specifically, and it tended to conjure visions of tree-hugging or high costs. Over the past few years, however, green building has moved from the realm of luxury to necessity in the eyes of the construction and design industry. And as more and more guidelines became certification standards, it is easier for the consumer
(and the builder) to identify and understand how to build and operate a home in a more sustainable way.

Green building encompasses the materials chosen for their sustainability, the methods of construction, the health of the home’s interior, the reduction of waste, and the energy efficiency of the finished project. The principles of green building also apply to living in a sustainable way, choosing to reduce the amount of energy needed to operate the home, and even altering lifestyle choices about transportation and consumption. Sustainable living, in fact, requires a shift in the way the homeowner views his or her place in the cosmos.

ENERGY usage in the built environment is HIGH, and in America our homes consume about 20% of the
energy used overall.

OK, maybe we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves there. So, you’re planning to hire a builder or buy that
fixer-upper. You have been reading a lot about green building and have decided that this project is going green. Now what?

First, don’t let the research discourage you. As with almost any technical subject these days, using the Internet to check out the best options will both inform and overwhelm you. There are literally thousands of excellent websites for organizations devoted to the environment, homebuilding and remodeling, as well as proprietary sites for manufacturers and for-profit businesses that will all provide breadth and depth of data on building green. The unfortunate result of all this information can be gridlock on decision making.

Green building issues focus on using recycled materials, green products, buying local, certifications, verifications, inspections, and on and on. To simplify the process, focus on the two central benefits that a green home can offer: a more energy-efficient and healthier environment house.

Start with Energy
The origins of the green building movement can be traced back to the design and construction community’s response to the last energy crisis in the late 1970’s. Like today, the cost to heat and cool had skyrocketed, and concerns about the environment made it almost impossible for energy companies to explore and extract more oil
to meet the demand. Logically, the response was to reduce the amount of energy we consumed.

Energy usage in the built environment is high, and in America our homes consume about 20% of the energy used overall. Architects, engineers, builders and product manufacturers began devoting resources to create ways to make homes more energy efficient. The American consumer became better informed about proper insulation, water conservation, and alternative ways to power the home. While the emphasis on energy efficiency shifted
after oil prices tumbled in the 1980’s, the momentum behind the green building movement was retained and organizations popped up around the nation to research and promote residential energy efficiency. One of them, Integrated Building and Construction Solutions (IBACOS) was founded in Pittsburgh in 1989, and still leads the way in researching and improving how a home performs.

While the public’s attention drifted away from energy conservation, two federal agencies moved forward with a program that is probably the most influential in residential green construction. In 1992, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) launched the EnergyStar program to promote the manufacturing of energy efficient equipment and best practices. What EnergyStar offered that was compelling
was a set of performance standards that required third-party verification before the EnergyStar designation was awarded.

The EnergyStar designation meant that a manufacturer could sell (at a better profit margin) a product that the consumer had confidence would offer a higher return on investment, as well as a lower environmental impact. This was an important differentiating benefit that was adopted by makers of windows, doors, heating and cooling equipment, and appliances of all sorts.

As higher energy costs and concerns about global warming became part of the public consciousness during this decade, EnergyStar has become a program that concerned residential contractors have turned to for education and certification in better construction practices. And for consumers, identifying an EnergyStar certified builder is often the first step in building green.

“One of the big reasons we did it was that we wanted to ‘walk the walk’ not just talk about being green,” says Mary Schumacher Becker, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Schumacher Homes, explaining why her company became certified by EnergyStar. “Anyone can say they are green or even build green, but it’s so important to have a third party verify the construction.”

Schumacher Homes is relatively new to the Western PA market, but has been building in nine states throughout the central and southern U. S. for more than 16 years, and has an office in Greensburg. The Canton, OH based builder is one which adapts one of its many plans to your lot, and has a broad spectrum of home styles to make green. “We’ve built houses from $80,000 to over $1 million, and each one will be an EnergyStar home,” says
Mary Becker. “Each new home will get an independent certification inspection before we turn over the keys to
the owner.”

EnergyStar focuses on the aspects of the home where the most benefit to reduction can occur. What a homeowner can expect from an EnergyStar home is effective insulation, high-performance windows, a tight exterior and ductwork, efficient heating and cooling equipment, efficient appliances and a third-party verification of the standards applied to the construction.

Another EnergyStar builder in the area came to the certification almost by default. “Our owners have always focused on energy efficient design,” says Chris Cinker, General Manager of S&A Homes in Valencia. “We built with two-by-six walls for extra insulation, and used a lot of energy saving features. Someone approached us a few years ago and pointed out that if we added insulation to the backer board in the shower and under the stairs, or something like that, we’d have enough savings to be EnergyStar, so we took the extra steps.”

S & A Homes has been pushing the concept further of late, building six homes on Euclid Street with the East Liberty Development Inc. Working with IBACOS on the project, S & A built the homes in 2008 that were 40% higher than the Build America standard.

Regis McQuaide is the owner of Master Remodelers in the South Hills. His business was based on design/build renovations and additions to residential properties. A few years ago McQuaide began focusing on green building after an offhand comment from a customer.

“We were doing a design/build kitchen renovation and the customer kept complaining about his heating $400 bill from the first month he had occupied the place, which was October” remembers McQuaide. “He wondered how bad January was going to get and asked us if there was something we could do. We ended up finding that a cable technician had punched a one-inch hole in an exterior wall that wasn’t sealed. After we fixed it the customer saw a big difference.”

The experience intrigued McQuaide. He began to research the energy efficient construction market and also discovered EnergyStar. He underwent the training and certification process, and the experience has radically changed his business. “The EnergyStar program is rigorous; it’s like going to grad school,” McQuaide remembered. “You have to pass all aspects at 80% or higher to get certified.”

Master Remodelers continues to get referrals from its traditional business of kitchen renovations and home additions, but the expertise Regis McQuaide has acquired has broadened his business as an energy efficiency expert. McQuaide has also completed certification for NAHB’s Certified Green Professional program, and has qualified to do high-performance home audits. As the economy has slowed, that expertise has lead to work that has filled in the gaps.

“The home performance audits have been really keeping us busy,” explained McQuaide. “Audits look at the whole house functioning as a system, and the technology allows us to examine the house using infrared scanners to create an MRI of the home.” Master Remodelers also use blower doors, putting the house under negative pressure to draw air through the home and find leaks where conditioned air is escaping. How important is that? A gap of a sixteenth of an inch is equivalent to a one-inch hole in a wall. Such leaks can result in a 75% reduction in airflow, and leaky ductwork can add another five to twenty five percent reduction. The remedy can save thousands of dollars, and add to the comfort of the house immeasurably.

Efficient Homes Can be Healthy Homes
A tight house also adds to the efficiency of the ventilation system, and improves the environment in other ways.

“There are other benefits embedded in sealing a house properly,” notes Sota Construction president, Ernie Sota. “Closing off air leaks also closes pathways for insects and pests, so you aren’t subjecting your home to exterminating chemicals or bacteria from the pests. In a tight house, you also know where the ventilation is so if you want to filter the air you get the most benefit without outside air leaking in.”

Sota is an early pioneer of green building. His company is also EnergyStar certified, and he is one of the founders and board members of the Green Building Alliance. “Green really revolves around energy and health. I thought of a new phrase for this. You know how people say you are what you eat? How about you are where you live?”

Heartland Homes has grown in recent years to become the second largest builder in Western PA. While their business model requires that they keep a close watch on their construction costs, Heartland is another builder who feels compelled to make room in the budget for more sustainable construction. “We’ve introduced the Heartland Healthy Home,” says marketing director Kevin Oakley. “The Healthy Homes all have Lennox air cleaners, and we really focus on indoor air quality. Those homes get the most energy efficient equipment we have, and we use recycled materials and products in the construction.”

Oakley explained that the decision wasn’t just because their management was interested in building responsibly, but that the customer’s attitude had changed. “We just finished a 500-person survey of our projects in Allegheny, Washington and Butler counties. It’s an overall branding survey but we discovered that people are now asking about how green our homes were, and were willing to pay extra for an energy efficient home with a healthier indoor environment.”

Western Pennsylvanians spend a lot of time indoors, so the air quality of their homes has an important impact on health. “I read studies about how reducing toxins in the home improves health, allows kids to grow stronger and even improves the environment for comprehension of homework,” related Ernie Sota. “I’m not sure how much of that you can prove, but why wouldn’t you want to eliminate barriers to good health?”

Where Green is Going
Building green in Metropolitan Pittsburgh is no longer a matter of finding an expert or a committed builder in an isolated lot. The choices have broadened significantly just in the past two years.

Brett Malky of EQA Landmark Communities would not be surprised by the results Kevin Oakley found. EQA is the developer of Summerset at Frick Park, a groundbreaking community built east of the Squirrel Hill tunnels. The homes built in Summerset were constructed with higher performance standards than code required, and the experience motivated Malky to take green construction up a notch for his current developments, Newbury Market in South Fayette, and Venango Trails in Marshall Township.

“The value of the houses in Summerset was higher than the market because they were more comfortable and less expensive to live in,” asserts Malky. “Our new developments at Newbury and Venango Trails will attract people that care about the environmental impact and so we’ll offer zero energy houses. Our plan is that somewhere between five and fifteen percent of the construction will be zero energy, but we’re certainly not capping it.”A zero energy home is one that has a net zero consumption of energy over the course of a typical year.

As a sister company to IBACOS, EQA may seem like a natural organization to go to such green extremes in development, but the firm is also developing for a profit, and that factors into the equation now. When Summerset was developed in the late 1990’s there was virtually no consumer demand for a green home, but Malky is certain that public awareness is much higher, and that the payback is there.

The site work is underway on the mixed-use Newbury Market project, with construction of homes beginning later in 2009. One interesting aspect of the development is that there is no plan for segregating the lots to have a green section. “We are intentionally not segregating by price or location,” explains Malky. “No lots have been set aside, except for any that have no southern exposure, and there is no reason that any size or style house can’t be built to zero energy standards.”

IBACOS has also been doing work to help production-oriented builders work towards offering zero energy homes, and recently selected S & A Homes to construct a lab home. “They want a zero energy home that they can observe for three years to see how it performs,” says Chris Cinker of S & A. “IBACOS wants to coordinate with production-minded builders to get them to zero energy within their cost structures.”

Sota Construction has built a number of LEED certified projects, including an apartment for the elderly for the Felician Sisters, but the residential demand has been much lighter than for its LEED commercial projects until recently. “We’ve done condos and apartments that were green for EnergyStar standards in the past, but LEED certification takes in a broader array of sustainable issues than just energy efficiency,” Ernie Sota says. “But I’m planning to do the next phase at Riverside Mews (in South Side) as a LEED project.”

Very little traditional single-family suburban development has been built green, but with builders like Schumacher and Heartland (which is undergoing EnergyStar certification) expecting a portion of their market share to be green by demand, suburban green building will gain momentum shortly.

For the homeowner-to-be there are some good resources available to learn about the most significant issues, and to discover what questions to ask your builder. Most of these organizations also help with locating a certified contractor. In addition to the EnergyStar program (www.energystar.gov), consumers can go to the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) to learn about its Certified Green Professional program for new construction (www.nahbgreen.org). For existing homes you can check out the Green Certified Professional program of the National Association of Remodeling Industry (NARI)(www.greenremodeling.org), or the REGREEN initiative of American Society of Interior Designers (www.regreenprogram.org). And for more information on the general topic of building green try the U. S. Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org) or Pittsburgh’s Green Building Alliance (www.gbapghg.org), the Healthy Home Network (thehealthyhome.org) and the Residential Energy Services Network (www.natresnet.org).

One of the trends that evolved during the housing bubble was a shift in the average ownership cycle of a home from about seven years down to just over four. The recession has boomeranged that trend back to a longer buy and sell cycle, which will make sustainable home investment pay back more often. That trend, coupled with an overall shift towards a less disposable, more sustainable society will only boost the growing interest in green
home construction.

“Green building is like the Internet was in the late 1990’s,” noted Heartland Homes Kevin Oakley. “As soon as everyone figures out the business model, there is enormous potential.”NH