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Like it or not, we’ve all become acutely aware of our energy use these days, from our gas tanks to our homes’ utilities. And when we compare this year’s bills to last year’s, it’s not pretty.
What is pretty, though, is the work of custom builders in our region who are embracing green building practices that make new homes much more energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and as an added bonus, healthier for their owners to live in.
Even in a depressed real estate market, according to a May report from the National Association of Homebuilders, “green business appears headed for a galloping rate of growth.
“The higher quality associated with green building appears to be the key factor driving demand,” the report says. “Rising energy costs are influencing customers and increasing their willingness to pay a premium for green housing.”
Green homes are still, however, few and far between. More than 1.8 million new homes are built in the nation annually, but just 667 have been certified green through the U.S. Green Building Council’s new LEED for Homes program, with roughly 10,000 more registered for certification. None of the country’s 13 largest publicly traded homebuilders has yet “fully embraced the emerging market of sustainable building design and construction,” according to a May report by Calvert Group Ltd., a Bethesda, MD, investment firm that manages socially responsible mutual funds.
Three local builders, however, are leading the charge to build greener homes. The lucky few who live in them today enjoy lower energy and water bills, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and fewer problems with mold, mildew, or other indoor air toxins.
Rave Reviews
Gary Nash, Lou Sagatov, and Greg Smith all caught the green building bug through various builder seminars, and they’ve passed on their passion to the owners of their new homes.
High on the list of favorites are the homes’ energy-efficiency and indoor air quality.
“We weren’t looking for a green home, but as we learned more about it, we got more excited,” says Colleen Hanrahan-Miller of her Arlington, VA, home built by Sagatov Associates Inc. “I think our cable bill is higher than our utility bill.” Moreover, she adds, her husband Mark Miller has noticed that the terrible sneezing fits to which he was always prone have disappeared since they’ve moved in. And now that they are expecting a baby, she says, she’s especially fond of the home’s “Green Label Plus” non-toxic carpeting, “knowing I’ll have an infant crawling on the rugs pretty soon.”
Steve Newman offers similar raves for his McLean, VA, home by Greg Smith Company.
“Anything that could have been done to make this house energy efficient, it was,” he says.
Like Miller, the health of Newman’s college-age daughter has dramatically improved in the new home. “My daughter has asthma, but she doesn’t cough or anything in this house. In the house, she doesn’t have any allergies.”
Nash became a green convert after attending a seminar by national green building expert David Johnston, who has written two books on the subject. “It impacted me so much, I hired him to come back from Colorado to train our whole staff [at Nash Construction Inc.],” he says. Johnston ultimately served as a consultant as Nash built a new home for himself in Delaplane, VA. “I wanted to be able to use this house as a training ground for my staff and myself.”
