Building green

Adecade ago, Roger Petersen shifted his Scandia USA Inc. home construction business into green building on a hunch that it was the wave of the future.

Petersen's hunch is paying off.

The Richmond-based company has built about 20 environmentally sustainable homes that are more energy-efficient and have better indoor air quality than conventional homes.

Next month, the company will receive a national EnergyValue Housing award for one the five town homes Scandia built in the Rocketts Landing development that straddles the Richmond-Henrico County line.

Petersen's company is part of a growing industry in the United States, with thousands of builders increasing their homes' energy efficiency and improving indoor air quality, two of the main components of green building.

The number of builders committing to green construction is on the rise throughout Virginia and in the Richmond area. They are building singleand multifamily homes that range from affordable to high-end.

"The annual U.S. market in green-building products and services was over $12 billion in 2007, and we expect that number to continue to rise," said Marie E. Coleman, communications coordinator for the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization.

Green homes are projected to be worth $60 billion by 2010, making up 10 percent of the overall housing market, she added.

The financial incentive to build -- and buy -- green is powerful. Building a green home can increase its construction costs by as little as 1 percent to 2 percent, but homeowners can recoup the extra expense through energy savings.

For instance, the award-winning town home Scandia built in Rocketts Landing is 42 percent more energy-efficient than standard homes. Its vegetated roof cuts down on the storm water runoff by 80 percent. The town home also offers 30 percent savings in water usage.

"Our guarantee at Rocketts Landing is that the costs for heating and cooling the town home will be $78 to $120 a month," Petersen said. "If it costs more, we'll pay the difference for four years."

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There's a catch to the green-building trend, though. As the green-building industry grows, the potential for deceptive practices and inferior work rises.

"Some builders say they're green, but they're not," Petersen said.

So how do homebuyers know that the new house they are planning to buy is as green as the builder says it is?

Several organizations offer green-building certification in the U.S. Two of them are national.

The U.S. Green Building Council's operates LEED for Homes, a national third-party certification program for green homes.

The council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program has helped standardize green building in commercial projects around the world, and LEED for Homes has certified 1,151 homes, with an additional 13,747 registered to be certified.

The National Association of Home Builders launched the National Green Building Certification program this year. The group has certified 79 homes since June.

More than 70 local and regional organizations also provide green-building certification services.

In Virginia, EarthCraft Virginia has certified about 200 green homes since its creation in 2005, including about 60 in central Virginia. An additional 50 EarthCraft homes are under construction across the state.

The nonprofit group also has certified 14 multifamily developments, representing more than 600 residential units.

Tailoring its certification requirements to a specific area's climate is one of the benefits of being a regional organization, said Karl Bren, EarthCraft Virginia's director of public affairs and development.

Features that builders focus on to earn EarthCraft certification include:

In addition to its certification program, EarthCraft Virginia offers training sessions for builders, designers and architects looking to learn more about green building.

For its EarthCraft program, the group charges builders $950 to certify a single-family house that is less than 3,000 square feet.

"That includes an energy analysis of the home and two mandatory site inspections -- one after insulation is installed and the other to test both house and ductwork leakage after construction is completed, as each home is tested to meet performance criteria," said K.C. McGurren, EarthCraft's executive director.

The group also performs certifications for the LEED for Homes program.

The Home Builders Association of Virginia endorsed EarthCraft Virginia in 2006, and the Virginia Housing Development Authority provided early support as well.

"EarthCraft is the industry standard in Virginia," Scandia's Petersen said. Scandia has built five EarthCraft-certified homes.

EarthCraft is poised to grow significantly through a new partnership with Dominion Virginia Power.

"It's the first partnership between an electric utility and a green-builder program, as far as we know," McGurren said.

The two groups agreed to a two-year partnership in October. Dominion representatives declined to reveal the amount of its financial funding for the nonprofit group.

"EarthCraft builds on Energy Star as a foundation, so we know EarthCraft delivers," said Harold Crowder, manager for the residential segment of Dominion's energy conservation program.

EarthCraft will help Dominion educate its customers about green building and the environmental impact new construction can have.

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The number of builders committing to green construction is growing.

Eagle Construction of Va. LLC recently committed to building 148 brownstone-style town homes in West Broad Village to EarthCraft standards. The development is in western Henrico County.

The brownstones range in size from 2,281 to 3,100 square feet, with prices from $349,000 to $409,000. Eagle Construction expects to finish the first in March.

"We wanted to reach under the finishes of our homes to inject quality that is not visible but creates comfort and is seen in the savings created each month with a smaller carbon footprint," said Jeff Kornblau, director of sales and marketing for Eagle Construction of Va.

Green building isn't limited to high-end properties. Central Virginia's largest developers of affordable housing, the Better Housing Coalition and Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity, build EarthCraft-certified homes for lowto moderately low-income homebuyers.

The Better Housing Coalition, a nonprofit organization based in Richmond, has built about 60 EarthCraft-certified homes since 2005, when it shifted exclusively to building EarthCraft-certified developments. It expects to build an additional 60 over the next two years.

The coalition also has built two EarthCraft multifamily developments and is building a third in North Richmond that will have 240 units.

"As an organization, we've adopted the principles of sustainable development," said T.K. Somanath, the coalition's president and chief executive officer.

Richmond Habitat built its first EarthCraft home in 2007, and it built another one this year in its 17-home development off Angus Road in South Richmond.

"EarthCraft was excellent to work with," said Leisha LaRiviere, Richmond Habitat's executive director. "We asked for a preliminary review before the certification inspections on our first house, and they gave us tips and good direction."

Having mastered the process, Richmond Habitat will build all its future projects to EarthCraft standards, including its next one, a 15-town home development planned for T and 33rd streets in Richmond's East End near Armstrong High School.