Frank Dalene is the son of a builder, and for more than 50 years he never has been far from the construction business. “I remember being 5 years old and being on a job site with a hammer in my hand,” he says. He started his own small building company fresh out of college, and in 1978, he partnered with his father to found Telemark. Joined several years after by his brother, Roy, they created what remains one of the most respected building companies in New York’s ultra-high-end Hamptons market. With Roy’s son Tim moving up through the ranks, the Dalene family dynasty seems assured for another generation. Many builders would take that as a cue to spend more time on the golf course. Instead, Dalene is developing a new model for building custom homes and lessening the industry’s contribution to climate change.
In 2008, Dalene helped found the Hamptons Green Alliance, a team of industry professionals committed to sustainable building practices, and to an approach it calls Integrated Project Delivery (IPD). An extension of the design/build model, IPD brings the architect, builder, and trade contractors together. The group’s proof-of-concept is a net-zero energy remodeling project planned for LEED Platinum certification that it accepted on a not-for-profit basis. Figuring the cost of the house’s thin-film photovoltaic array, solar hot water panels, and geothermal heat pump, Dalene says, “We calculated a payback of eight years” and a savings of $230,000 over the life of a 30-year mortgage. Hoping to calculate the house’s embodied carbon footprint, and frustrated in his search for a mechanism to do so, Dalene proceeded to invent one. Dubbed ICEMAN (International Carbon Equivalent Mechanism Attributed to Neutrality), the method has potential applications beyond the construction industry. “I am in the process of forming a public/private partnership with the government to implement it,” says Dalene, who reports an encouraging response. That’s an ambitious agenda, but it’s one Dalene finds far more compelling that golf. “I reach a goal and I set myself another,” he says. “I’m never satisfied.”
Telemark, Bridgehampton, N.Y.
www.telemarkinc.com
Type of business: Custom builder
Years in business: 32
Employees: 13
2009 volume: $4.8 million
2009 starts: 5
