Energy efficiency has long been associated with lower utility bills. But for builders looking to deliver better homes, performance can have a much broader payoff—affecting everything from comfort and indoor air quality to durability and long-term value.
That shift in thinking was at the center of a recent BUILDER Session featuring three industry leaders:
- Jason Boyer, founder of Phoenix-based Boyer Vertical
- Stephen Aiguier, founder and president of Portland, Oregon-based Green Hammer Design Build
- Sarah Cudemo, product management manager, fiberglass, at Marvin.
Their conversation, moderated by Symone Strong, managing editor of BUILDER magazine, explored how builders can make smarter decisions about energy efficiency, where investments can have the greatest impact, and how high-performance strategies are evolving as codes and buyer expectations change.
For Aiguier, who has been pursuing high levels of energy efficiency for decades, experience reveals benefits that extend well beyond the original goal. “We started learning the intrinsic benefits of [energy efficiency], which were comfort and indoor air quality and health and all these other benefits, and we started realizing that there’s a lot more value than what we were trying to initially pursue,” he says.
That broader definition of value also changes where the process begins.
Start With the Home, Not the Technology
Rather than approaching efficiency as a collection of products or systems, Boyer argues that builders should first consider fundamental design decisions, including orientation, climate, views, and the way occupants will experience the home.
“We treat sustainability in the same way—it’s like a baseline way we think about things,” he says. “But we’re really focused more on comfort and performance and how a space, a house—it doesn’t matter if it’s indoor space or an outdoor space—lives in its climate.”
Only after those fundamentals have been addressed does Boyer turn to the building envelope, windows, mechanical equipment, and other systems. That sequencing can become especially important when builders are deciding where a limited performance budget will deliver the most value.
Finding the Right Balance
Windows illustrate some of the tradeoffs builders face. Homeowners increasingly want expansive glass, natural light, and strong connections to outdoor spaces—all priorities that must be balanced with energy-performance goals.
In the Phoenix area, where Boyer primarily works, that can mean carefully locating the home’s biggest visual moments and then using strategies such as deep overhangs and a high-performance envelope to help make them possible.
For manufacturers, the same challenge is influencing product development. Cudemo points to Marvin Vivid as one response to demand for larger openings combined with stronger thermal performance.
“Energy efficiency is here to stay—it’s growing,” she says. “So we really need to be able to provide the design aesthetic that people are looking for, whether it’s transitional or contemporary, but also not compromising on energy efficiency.”
The conversation ultimately returns to a deceptively simple question: What should builders invest in first? For Boyer, one answer is to prioritize elements that will be difficult—or impossible—to change later. “I can upgrade my air conditioning system 10 years from now to a more efficient system,” he says. “I cannot easily change the windows and the envelope and the insulation and the overhangs that are designed in that create the architecture. So invest in the design and architecture first, because that’s what will drive the comfort. And where there’s comfort, that’s performance, and the performance is the value.”
Watch the full BUILDER Session, “The Value of Higher Performance: Smarter Energy-Efficiency Decisions for Today’s Homes,” to hear the panelists discuss where builders can start, how codes and incentives are changing the equation, the role of windows and doors, working with trades, and how to communicate the value of higher performance to home buyers.
Learn more about Marvin Vivid and its approach to high-performance design.
