Winners keep score, and Metro shows us how

In early July, I received an email from a familiar name; Dylan Rivera. Dylan had been our "contact" at The Oregonian for many years. He is now at Metro as a public affairs specialist. Metro is an elected regional government that serves more than 1.5 million residents in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties and the 25 cities in the Portland region. Dylan invited me to participate in Metro's Environmental Scorecard Workshop.

3rd Party Evaluation Ranks Earth Advantage’s Energy Modeling Tool #1

Last week, the Energy Trust of Oregon released a thoroughly researched and well-documented report summarizing their efforts to establish an “asset-based” energy performance metric for existing homes. The study tested and compared the most highly regarded modeling tools from around the country, including Earth Advantage’s. (Spoiler alert: Earth Advantage’s modeling system was ranked first overall.)

The Man Who Powers Energy Efficiency Work in Washington State

One of my favorite presentations at our 2011 Green Day Forum was from John Davies, Director of the Opportunity Council’s Building Performance Center in Bellingham, Washington. His presentation, “The Weatherization Industry Grows Up,” left me fascinated with the work that our northern colleague is engaged in.

Affordable Green Home Plans from a Certified EA Professional

Recently an Earth Advantage Institute certified Sustainable Homes Professional, Bruce Butler, wrote to us to let us know how our training paid off for him. Bruce has developed sustainable house plans for stock plan purchase.

I'd like to add that the pay-off is really for all of us. These aren't your ordinary stock plans! As we move toward more sustainable building, we need designers like Bruce to make house plans available to builders and consumers.

Give It To Me Straight, Doc!

In their better natures, I truly believe people really do like to help. Whether it's holding a door for the elderly or giving unsolicited advice to a friend, people are often taking action for the "benefit" of others. Often times this "help" is not perceived as such, rather its viewed as interference or suspiciously regarded as a play for a favor in return.  The older man takes it as an affront to his fitness ("Don't hold the door for me sonny!") or "mind your own business" from the friend who didn't ask for advice. It seems to me that oftentimes people over think a situation, rather than communicating in a straightforward way. 

What’s the Energy Performance of Your Home?

With the downturn in the housing market that has resulted in a new economic environment in the building industry, many builders and developers are looking for creative solutions to weather the storm.  This has resulted in builders using a number of different strategies, including focusing on the remodel market, building at the lowest cost possible, building green or high-performance homes, or just getting out of the industry all together.  

How to Find a Great Builder or Watch Them Run for the Hills

Three Questions to Ask

I want to let you in on a little secret: buildings are complex. We expect them to 1) keep us comfortable, 2) to handle all kinds of weather 3) to be safe 4) durable 5) stylish, and 6) efficient.

The last time I checked, the laws of physics didn’t ignore buildings, and these laws can actually be applied to deliver five of the six expectations above. Perhaps there are even physicists out there who can predict style with science -- I suppose I can extend the benefit of the doubt. But how many people do you know who build, sell, inspect, purchase or occupy buildings and who comprehend how the flows of energy, moisture, and air influence comfort, efficiency, durability and safety? 

What Else Don’t You Know About Your Home?

With the downturn in the housing market many builders and developers are looking for creative solutions to weather the storm.  This has resulted in a number of different tactics by builders including a focus on the remodel market, building at the lowest possible cost, building green or high performance homes, or just getting out of the industry all together. 

Arguably, one of the most interesting approaches builders have used to differentiate themselves is embracing transparency, allowing the homebuyer to truly understand what they are purchasing.  Builders have begun to use green building certifications and energy performance scores as tools to achieve this more transparent message.  By bringing progressive construction features into the foreground, builders are creating a new set of buying criteria not seen before in the residential market.  The measures they are highlighting -- that improve energy efficiency, durability, and improve air quality -- should be important to consumers.  Many of America’s leading builders, such as KB Homes, are making this case to their buyers every day.

It Ain’t Easy Being Green: A Day in the Life of a Field Technician

A morning inspection at a home built by W. A. Hughes home -- Oregon High Performance Home, Energy Star, Earth Advantage Gold Certified

Being an Earth Advantage field technician requires juggling. Not the flaming sticks kind, but close to it. The team has to be highly proficient in time management, building science and above all, communication skills. With hundreds of new homes to verify each year, field techs need to distinguish what type of job they are inspecting -- Earth Advantage New Homes with ENERGY STAR energy features, ENERGY STAR-only home, a LEED for Homes project or a basic home that only gets an Energy Performance Score (EPS).  Once this is recorded, the tech then needs to look at  project location (Oregon or Washington) to determine what set of inspection criteria to follow. 

The EAI field techs start their day by downloading specific job files assigned to them from the EA New Homes Scheduler.  Once the files are downloaded, they plan out a geographic route that takes them to all of their jobs and hopefully ends up near their home or close to the office to end their day. This can become challenging depending on “windshield time” (miles to drive) and in what direction and/or if any of their inspections are time-sensitive.  We strive to finalize scheduling within the 1^st hour of the work day so we can “escape” before being pulled into other office functions that are not necessarily related to inspections.  A delayed departure can cause extra stress on the field tech as they know they have a certain amount of work to perform at each site that can take anywhere from 1 -3 hours depending on the type of inspection.

Just Tell It Like It Is: Energy Labels for Homes

In their better natures, I truly believe people really do like to help. Whether it's holding a door for the elderly or giving unsolicited advice to a friend, people are often taking action for the "benefit" of others. Often times this "help" is not perceived as such, rather its viewed as interference or suspiciously regarded as a play for a favor in return.  The older man takes it as an affront to his fitness ("Don't hold the door for me sonny!") or "mind your own business" from the friend who didn't ask for advice. It seems to me that oftentimes people overthink a situation, rather than communicating in a straightforward way. 

The State of the Union, Clean Coal Ads, Green Jobs , Energy Efficiency and Van Jones.

Best quote of the week: In a discussion of building energy efficiency and building performance labeling, and making an analogy to the current requirement to provide miles per gallon information when selling a car, Van Jones proclaimed: “It’s criminal that we don’t provide Energy Performance Scores on all our buildings.”

Worst quote of the week: In online ads interrupting the State of the Union address: “Clean Coal.” Courtesy of the American Coalition of Clean Coal Electricity 

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of joining Van Jones in a roundtable discussion preceding his lecture hosted by the University of Oregon on “The Next American Economy.”  Van Jones is a leader in the clean energy economy and social justice movements, a senior fellow at the Center For American Progress, a senior policy advisor at Green For All, and is the author of the NYT bestseller The Green Collar Economy.  What I enjoyed most about the conversation with Jones was his emphasis on Efficiency First, both as a policy approach, as well as a personal approach. In fact, he suggested that everyone should have a “house tune up,” just like we schedule our regular car tune ups.  As a green building non-profit, EAI focuses specifically on energy efficiency, but as Jones points out, it should be a priority for everyone.  Why exactly, you ask? What about renewables? 

New Homes Sales Tips: Competing Against Existing Homes

The Unique Advantage of High Performance Homes

One of the biggest challenges builders face is the inventory of existing homes for sale. The financial crisis has raised this issue to a critical point because much of this inventory consists of foreclosed homes that the lenders are selling at a deep discount. Realtytrac expects 1.2 million homes will be repossessed in 2011, which is 20% more than in 2010 and would signal the peak of this current foreclosure crisis. These foreclosed homes on the market are known as the “visible” inventory. Unfortunately, the housing market will not bounce back until most of these units have been sold, as consumers are hesitant to buy if they think prices will continue to drop.  Another threat is the “shadow” inventory, which are homes lenders have foreclosed on, or will soon, but are withholding from the market because they don’t want to further depress prices. Corelogic estimates that as of August 2010 the shadow inventory consisted of 2,100,000 housing units! The other component of existing inventory, speculative new home construction, is at historic lows. As of last November there were approximately 197,000 new homes for sale nationwide, the lowest since March 1968. Therefore, a new home builder is much more likely to be competing against an existing home than a new home.

Top Ten Green Building Trends for 2011

January is a time we all look forward to because the new year holds such promise. We believe it's going to be a promising year for the green building industry -- despite flat market conditions for conventional homes, we've seen market share for high performance homes increase from 18.5 to 23 percent in the Portland Metro area alone. In both Seattle and Portland 1 of every 4 new homes is certified. Clearly the time has come for energy efficiency, and with it, healthier green homes.

In keeping with the spirit of renewal, we are releasing our annual green building trends for 2011. The trends, which range from “affordable green” to lifecycle analysis of materials, were identified by Earth Advantage Institute based on discussions with a range of audiences over the latter part of 2010. These sectors include policymakers, builders, developers, architects, real estate brokers, appraisers, lenders, and homeowners. We encourage you take a look, cogitate and comment...

Greenbuild 2010: EPS Goes TED

We were fortunate enough to be selected by USGBC to take part in a special initiative for select sessions at GreenBuild this year. This is part of USGBC’s efforts to keep the conference fresh and exciting for attendees. Our session on the Energy Performance Score (EPS), a Market Catalyst, was selected by the Special Programs Working Group to take place in a new interactive and multimedia environment in order to better engage the audience in our presentation. 

The project was not without peril. Our PowerPoint, which included man-on-the-street video interviews, was projected on a suspended cube hanging above a runway catwalk of sorts. The audience completely encircled the runway so that we had to walk, turn to all directions, pass off the single remote control, and talk at the same time, all without falling off (luckily the platform was only 16 inches high). Thanks to the USGBC providing rehearsal time, we were able to traverse the runway and engage the attendees in a fairly unusual format, while remaining safe. We opted not to take advantage of instant smartphone polling capability as we had enough to keep track of already.

$11M DOE Award for EPS Builds Retrofit Momentum

It’s not often that you see a concept get traction fast, but the Energy Performance Score (EPS) is an idea that has gained considerable interest and a growing track record.

The most recent milestone for this residential energy labeling system – a miles-per-gallon style indicator that enables home-to-home comparisons of energy consumption and related carbon emissions -- is a multi-state award from the US Department of Energy for $11 million to roll out an EPS infrastructure for locales in Massachusetts, Virginia, Alabama and Washington.