Green Building

The hot topic at the water cooler is Green Buildingin and cost vs reward.  Some say greenhouse gases are dooming our grandkids to a future of drought and flooding. Skeptics argue that climate change is inevitable and beyond the scope of anything we humans do. While the truth is likely somewhere in between, most people agree that sensible conservation and practical oversight is probably a healthy approach –and the efforts we make today will put energy-saving dollars in our pockets tomorrow. That’s one reason most of us practice some sort of conservation effort; recycling trash, reducing our use of paper, or heating our swimming pools with solar panels. It’s also the reason why NAR built the first LEED-certified* green building in Washington, DC. NAR believes REALTORS® need to be on the leading edge of social concerns—which is also why they developed NAR’s Green Designation for today’s real estate professionals—and why they closely monitor all legislation regarding environmental issues. I have earned the Green Designation myself because I believe it’s important to be at the forefront of this movement. As green issues take a more prominent place in social discourse, we take justifiable pride in our industry’s commitment to the environment.


Yes, I think the idea of “going green” started to gain momentum before the housing downturn hit. Today, a lot of Las Vegas buyers—and most investors—are pretty focused on opportunistic purchases like REOs and short sales. As things start to improve, real estate consumers will turn their attention back toward “green,”  Bob Hamrick said. 

The effort to highly competitive has caused the slowed down the green effort, but I expect today’s move toward green construction will become the standard for the future. The new CityCenter in Las Vegas, which is really an extraordinary resort destination, was designed and built to conserve energy and preserve natural resources. It’s just a more responsible approach to building, and I think that signals a growing trend. Getting our agents green-certified and knowledgeable is certainly a place to start, Bob Hamrick said.  

*LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a benchmark building standard set by the U.S. Green Building Council.




Results are based on 451 completed surveys returned from building professionals in 48 states: 64.5% of respondents design or build green homes; 35.5% do not; 92% of all respondents work in new single-family detached, 24% also design or build new single-family attached, and 24% are active in multifamily markets.


Compared with market conditions three years ago, only 7% of respondents described their markets as growing, 9% as about the same, 13% reported a 5% drop, 18% said their market was down 5%–10%, 17% reported a 10%–20% drop, and 36% reported a decline of more than 20%.

 
Green building is looking toward putting all the pieces of the puzzle together with the creation of a smart grid and connected home is expected to grow in 2010 as utilities continue to make upgrades to the grid for more effective generation, storage and distribution of power, and as smart-grid manufacturers develop custom and web-based display panels that show real-time home energy use, says the Earth Advantage Institute.  The same is true in the commercial sector. Case-in-point: Networking equipment giant Cisco rolled out the first Smart Connected Building solution in July last year, which will interconnect and enable building systems such as heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC), lighting, electrical, security, and renewables over the IP network.
Cisco also projects that the smart-grid communications infrastructure will reach $20 billion a year over the next five years.  The Earth Advantage Institute also predicts energy labeling for homes and office buildings. The non-profit organization says this will make it easier to perform a building-to-building or home-to-home comparison, but a publicly available score on the multiple listing service could push building owners to make needed energy improvements.


There are many different approaches to green building--in site design and development, in sourcing materials and in methods for energy and water efficiency. Throw in a client's geography and budget and everything can change.  We need to look at the whole-house approach and emphasizing what you need to do from start to finish--whether you're remodeling a home or building from the ground up. You'll learn how to make the National Green Building Standard work for you.

Email Edwin to know about the Green Built homes in Columbia, SC  Email me Green Built Homes.