I just noticed I haven’t written the Green Builders Journal Blog since Feb. 27th. Sorry for the delay. I’ve been writing a Blog for City Ventures giving my opinion on some of the critical questions that everyone needs to answer when deciding “Where will I live”. Writing two Blogs, as easy as it sounds, actually takes more time and thought than you’d think. I will be writing a Green Builders Journal once a month for at least the rest of the year and two City Ventures Blogs a month for the rest of the year. That way I’ll have written 24 of each Blog in the two years we’ve had our website. I get a lot of response from them and look forward to any thoughts people may have. The City Ventures Blog can also be accessed from our website.
City Ventures is having amazing success with our Greenkey program. As a Company we’ve doubled in size the first two years of our existence. We closed roughly 50 homes and did $25M in revenue the first year, 100 closings and $50M in revenue the second year and we’re on track to close 200 homes and $100M in revenue in 2012. So we’re really busy but I enjoy writing the Blogs and will continue to no matter how busy we get.
So back to Greenkey.
Greenkey is our definition of what it means to be a Green Builder. As I’ve said in previous Blogs, early on we used LEED certification as our defining Green strategy. The LEED program certified that the home is Green by applying a point system to what the Builder puts in the home. The problem is we discovered early on that LEED is expensive and cumbersome to utilize and worse, didn’t really offer the homeowner real cost savings for being Green. We invented Greenkey as a means for defining Green Building by what we believe is the best. Having done this for a few years, we feel we have a better gauge on what really matters to todays homebuyers when it comes to being Green AND saving money. They want both.
So what makes a home Greenkey?
It starts by making our homes all electric. That’s right I said ALL electric. There is NO natural gas in our Greenkey projects. At this point Gas and Electric are the only two sources of energy in the modern neighborhood. Gas is the preferred choice because it’s cheaper than electricity. The problem is that Gas won’t light your home or run your gadgets, computers and TV’s. In most homes, Gas is used to heat hot water heaters, heat furnaces, run cooking appliances, and clothes dryers. Obviously anything that needs heat. There are electric versions of all this equipment, but the cost of the electricity to heat water, air, clothes, and food is WAY more expensive than Gas. Thus Gas and Electric have been doing double duty in virtually all new homes.
As a Builder we have to install the infrastructure in each home that makes them able to provide Gas and Electric energy. That’s not inexpensive and the cost is obviously built into the price of the home. No one would buy the home if it were all electric because the cost every month to the homeowner would be so much larger than the Gas/Electric home. I would venture to say the monthly electric bill would be triple to four times as great as the combination of a gas bill and an electric bill. In fact it’s so energy INEFFICENT that in California, Title 24 would not allow you to even build the home because it wouldn’t meet State mandated energy efficiency requirements. The utility companies would burn too much coal and fuel to provide the electricity needed to power all electric homes.
So how can City Ventures build and sell all electric homes?
That answer next month. Hint: The electricity cost will be zero, or close to zero.
Until then
If you’ll remember from my early Green Builders Journal Blogs, Green is a very broad term that has as many definitions as there are people trying to define it. In trying to bring together the common components of anyone’s definition and make it one that would be hard for anyone to dispute, I defined Green as any program, idea, or concept that attempts to conserve natural resources. If I attempt to build a house using less lumber thereby saving trees, that’s being Green. If I build a house with solar power so that some of the energy that powers the home comes from the sun and therefore conserves coal, or petroleum, that’s being Green.
If I put low flow plumbing fixtures in my house thereby using less water, that’s being Green. When we formed City Ventures we made it a mandate of the Company to push the envelope of building Green. As we feel it’s clearly evident that Green Building is the future, we wanted to evolve our building process to include Green concepts as early as possible and stay ahead of the Green Building game. We chose LEED as the program that would measure how Green we were building. While LEED is a great way of measuring Green, we found after two years of using it that it’s cost to certify aren’t worth the bureaucracy and paperwork we need to go through to obtain Certification. It costs over $1,000 just to get the LEED certification. More importantly we felt we could provide our homeowners with a much more practical and money saving definition of what it means to buy and live in a Green home.
And that’s what our Greenkey homes are.
It’s OUR definition of Green. We know enough about building Green now that we can better pick and choose among the unlimited number of individual Green ideas that result in a Green Home and do it in a way that we feel is best for our homeowners or potential buyers. LEED and several of the other “Green measuring” programs all have their own definitions of Green. Some are good ideas, all are definitely Green, and all of them cost money. As the Builder, we’re basically spending that money for the future homeowners while we construct the home. Therefore we’re choosing what Green will mean for those homeowners.
We’ve decided to choose differently than all those other ”Green measuring” programs.
And that’s what are Greenkey homes are.
They’re Green homes where City Ventures chose the components that make them Green. Since almost all Green components cost money, we chose components that not only save natural resources from a Global perspective, but save the homeowner actual money from a monthly cost of living perspective. It’s the best of both worlds because we’re helping save Mother Nature, and our homeowners save money while saving Mother Nature. And I don’t mean save money from some nebulous “save money over time” concept. I mean truly save money from their checking account every month.
So how does that happen??
Let’s talk about that next time.
Until then
Herb
Well the Green Builders Journal is going to take a radical turn.
I started this series of blogs by defining what “Green” means. That led to how one can “measure” being Green. I used the LEED certification process as one way of measuring how Green a project is, and then wrote several Blogs explaining in depth the LEED process and how they define Green. City Ventures is currently building 6 projects to a LEED Gold certification. In that evolution of green building we’re discovering and adopting a new way to be Green.
And it doesn’t involve LEED.
What we’ve discovered as we learn how to produce Green homes is that LEED, while an excellent program on some levels, falls way short on other levels. Being Green for the sake of being Green is one strategy and one that is best suited for using the LEED program. However there are excellent Green strategies available that fall outside the LEED program. As a builder if we choose a Green strategy that LEED does not recognize, than that strategy doesn’t receive any points. As virtually all Green strategies available today cost more money, we’ve found ourselves having to decide between strategies that are green and get LEED points and strategies that are Green that save the homeowner on costs of living but do not earn LEED points.
Which is why we’re taking this radical turn.
City Ventures is devising it’s own Green strategy. It’s called Greenkey. Our goal with Greenkey is to adopt Green strategies that actually save the homeowner money by producing actual cost of living savings. The “list” of what makes a Greenkey home will constantly grow and evolve as we discover new and innovative Green ways of saving homeowners money by building more efficient homes and neighborhoods. The ultimate goal will be when the first Greenkey home is net zero energy. Net zero energy is when the amount of energy consumed by the home is equal to the amount of energy the homes produces.
We believe everyone wants to be Green. If you polled people walking out of the supermarket and asked them if they’d pay more for a Green home, they’d all probably say yes. When the reality of actually having to pay more for something simply because it’s Green actually shows up, most people make a different choice. Mother Earth needs to be saved but not if I have to actually write a check. If the choice is between a $350,000 townhome that isn’t Green next door to a $360,000 townhome that is Green, the real world is that Mother Earth takes a backseat to most people writing that $10,000 check.
That’s why we’ve decided to move past LEED, which is a purely Green program, and towards one that is Green AND reduces the cost of living for each homeowner that chooses to buy. Next Blog I’ll go back to the beginning and bring everyone up to date on our Greenkey strategy and what our first group of projects looks like from a Green standpoint and then where were looking to go in the future.
Until then
Herb
This blog will finish up the discussion of Water Efficiency as it relates to LEED certification. This, the third and final component, deals with Indoor Water Use.
Indoor water use efficiency differs from the previous two components in a way that up until now we haven’t had a chance or need, to talk about. Marketing. If you’ll remember the first component had to do with water REUSE. Other than infrastructure changes, for the most part this very green aspect occurs with little or no notice from the occupant. Even the second component, outdoor water use efficiency, can be implemented in a very green way without compromising anything in the how the property looks or functions. To be a successful green builder, you have to walk the fine line between being green and doing what’s best for the planet, and providing a product that the modern homebuyer has come to expect from a new home and how it lives. The reality of green building is that almost everyone SAYS they want to be green, but if they have to pay extra for it or it changes their way of life in a dramatic fashion, they’ll opt out of being green in a heartbeat.
Which gets us back to the Indoor Water Use efficiency component of LEED.
When it comes to indoor water use, its pretty simple. Wherever it comes out, try and make LESS of it come out, yet still accomplish its purpose. That’s the purest definition of efficiency…accomplishing the same with less. Showers, faucets, toilets, washers & dishwashers are pretty much the extent of our indoor water use, but can you think of five more important aspects of every day life in our modern society? Indoor water use efficiency is achieved by installing faucets and fixtures that lower the output of water to its designated use. Low flow fixtures and faucets definitely accomplish the goal of being efficient but this is where the tricky part of being a green builder in this aspect comes into play. People love their long luxurious showers, they want their dishes sparkling and their clothes soft and clean….and there can be nothing more annoying than having to flush a toilet twice to achieve its intended use. In other words purchasing low flow faucets and fixtures based on cost alone without researching which ones accomplish the goal of efficiency WITHOUT sacrificing function needs to be the absolute goal in this component. Being penny wise and pound foolish here can actually turn out to be very costly to a builder from a customer satisfaction standpoint. That’s why this aspect needs to be carefully planned out and implemented.
The very best low flow faucets and fixtures are NOT inexpensive. That makes this component of LEED a costly green aspect. As with all other products, I imagine the evolution will continue and low flow items will get better and cheaper. The Green Builder will continue to monitor the progress of this evolution but until function and cost become more realistic in how they can affect marketing and customer satisfaction, this expensive aspect of green building will have to be implemented with great caution.
Next time we’ll begin our discussion of another of LEED’s eight categories. We’ve discussed energy and water efficiency over the last several blogs.
Next we’ll tackle “Sustainable Sites”
Until then
Herb