What’s it take for a builder to go green? It starts with a desire to learn and a willingness to push the envelope. Then the company has to make a commitment to apply new ideas and new methods on the job.
There are many paths to sustainable building—a production builder’s final choices might not be the same as a custom builder’s. Let’s see how two builders operating in different market segments are blazing trails for others to follow.
In the suburban market of Madison, Wis., four near-zero–energy houses for the DOE Building America program taught Veridian Homes manager Gary Zajicek’s building teams the principles they now implement on scores of Energy Star–labeled, Wisconsin Green Built–certified mid-market homes every year.
In the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, custom builder Kevin Stack, owner of Northeast Natural Homes, demonstrates advanced concepts on LEED-rated upscale country houses, then applies the lessons learned in his consulting work to subsidized low-income housing in Syracuse. As custom builders, says Stack, “we get to identify innovative and cost-effective measures—and then, part of my business is to make them adaptable and affordable to the low-income community.”
Both men are willing to impart what they’ve learned: Zajicek presents seminars on his company’s recycling solutions to local and national audiences; Stack teaches a class on sustainable construction at a local community college and consults for other area builders.
Green builders live by the simpleconservation mantra: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Take lumber, for example: It’s cheap and easy to frame with fewer studs (Reduce). For custom homes, reclaimed flooring made of barn siding or industrial beams makes for a beautiful interior (Reuse). And off-cuts and scraps can be ground up for compost and used for erosion control on site (Recycle). Like complementary species in an ecosystem, production and custom builders have unique strengths in their niches. Big builders can attract bulk users for their scrap, but smaller outfits can more readily incorporate custom touches such as reclaimed wood flooring.
Quality Control That Pays
For Veridian Homes, successful energy performance hinges on quality control and account-ability. Frequent trade ally meetings and comprehensive scopes of work help trades stay on track with effective air-sealing and insulating details. Says manager Gary Zajicek, “That high-quality bath fan will help maintain good air quality while saving energy, but not if it isn’t installed right.” Zajicek teaches trade contractors to inspect each others’ work and to communicate one-to-one in order to keep energy details up to snuff, job after job.
A Foam for All Reasons
Kevin Stack insulates and seals his custom homes at the roof plane with high-density soy-based R-6.7 spray foam—which lets him downsize the roof framing to offset the insulation cost. (He also backs out the avoided cost of roof vent details.) “The foam does four jobs at once,” says Stack: “air seal, vapor barrier, insulation, and structural stiffener.” The insulated ceiling plane keeps heating ductwork inside the conditioned envelope. On affordable projects, Stack specs spray foam just to seal attic edges and ceiling penetrations, then blows in cellulose for an R-40 lid, running mechanical systems inside dropped chases below the main ceiling.
Doing The Numbers
An official Home Energy Rating Service (HERS) evaluation is part of any Energy Star– or LEED-rated home. “People always want to know their HERS score,” says builder Kevin Stack. “But I like to turn to the second page instead: Okay, that was your score, but this is how much your home will reduce CO2 emissions over its lifetime. This is how much coal or oil you will avoid using. People are aware of the climate change issue, and they appreciate that kind of information.”
Keeping it Cool
Preserving existing large trees—even when that means hand-digging around roots—is a high priority for Northeast Natural Homes. “If we have to choose between saving a nice tree or cutting it down to let in light for a photovoltaic panel, often we’ll go with saving the tree,” says owner Kevin Stack. “Besides the natural cooling effect, that tree will take more CO2 out of the atmosphere naturally than the emissions the solar panel would avoid.”
Closing the Loop
Green builders live by the simple conservation mantra: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Take lumber, for example: It’s cheap and easy to frame with fewer studs (Reduce). For custom homes, reclaimed flooring made of barn siding or industrial beams makes for a beautiful interior (Reuse). And off-cuts and scraps can be ground up for compost and used for erosion control on site (Recycle). Like complementary species in an ecosystem, production and custom builders have unique strengths in their niches. Big builders can attract bulk users for their scrap, but smaller outfits can more readily incorporate custom touches such as reclaimed wood flooring.
Slendering The Waste
New-construction waste is a relatively small portion of the total construction and demolition waste stream. Debris from remodeling demolition and whole-building teardowns bulks much larger—even before you include commercial, industrial, and highway work. But residential construction waste can be a much higher-quality resource—instead of dirty, mixed debris, it is mostly clean scraps and off-cuts that are easy to sort and save. That makes it attractive in the market—which spells opportunity for builders looking to cut disposal costs or even generate a small cash inflow.
In Wisconsin, Veridian Homes has created an industry-leading recycling program. The key elements are rigorous jobsite control systems to keep a handle on waste management and extensive relationships with buyers who can use every type of scrap. Result: No material goes to waste—every scrap is reused on the job or sold to a secondary market for an off-site use.
Keeping It Locally-Naturally
Custom builder Northeast Natural Homes looks to local and sustainable sources for as much of its construction materials as possible. Local woodlands and quarries supply finish lumber and natural stone. Beams and boards salvaged from old barns supply flooring.
Northeast also uses renewable cork flooring. But for the ultimate in durable comfort, it may forget the wood and just print and stain the concrete slab itself for a finished floor, complete with warm in-floor heat.
Personal Carbon Footprints
(Residential Energy Use):
Metropolitan Syracuse, NY - 0.962 metric tons per person per year
Metropolitan Madison, WI: - 1.101 metric tons per person per year
Source: Brookings Institution, May 2008
FINDING YOUR MARKETS
Need a hand locating an outlet for your jobsite scrap? The U.S. government’s General Services Administration has created an extensive database of construction and demolition material recycling service providers, which you can search by zip code or by state. We’ve tried it — it’s powerful and quick.
www.wbdg.org/tools/cwm.php
And the Construction Materials Recycling Association (www.cdrecycling.org) has developed these three websites for information on recycling the “big three” non-lumber waste materials (concrete, drywall, and asphalt shingles):
www.concreterecycling.org
www.drywallrecycling.org
www.shinglerecycling.org