Before joining Earth Advantage Institute (EAI), I moved to Bend, Oregon and built the greenest house that I could afford. I just sold this house in a down market. The asking price was $30,000 higher than the market value and I received a full-price offer less than twelve hours after the ‘For Sale’ sign was planted out front.
Earth Advantage's Top 5 Certified Homes' Series rolls on with the 4th highest-scoring home. This home, built by WA Hughes Construction and designed by Andre DeBar, is the result of half a decade of planning. Dubbed 'Nishiki Gardens' by the homeowners. the rooftop solar features are the only hint to vistors that there might be something more to this house other than the beautiful Japanese details.
Ella Wong wrote in to update us on the status of her net-zero, passive house, duplex "Trek Haus" being built in southeast Portland by architect/contractor Robert Hawthorne and builder Bart Bergquist. KATU-TV just aired a segment on Tuesday featuring the Portland State University mechanical engineering students who are studying the phase change insulation material being tested in one of the units (the other is the control unit that uses more standard insulation).
The smell of an exceptional bolognese sauce filled the kitchen of the house we were renting for the Christmas holidays. We had all descended on Cape Town to visit my mother. My sister, Tessa, bent over the pot to give the dish a taste as my wife popped a few loaves of garlic bread into the oven.
There are times during the holidays when every appliance in your home might be on at the same time. It’s madness. TVs, ovens, computers, video game systems, stoves, lights, coffee makers and the list goes on and on. But donʼt cringe! There are plenty of small things you can do to help reduce the effects of the energy tsunami and have a healthier holiday overall.
Read More »Guest Blogger: Zack Semke
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Image courtesy of Holst Architecture |
It’s always cool to be on the cutting edge. Earth Advantage builder Hammer & Hand has joined forces with Holst Architecture to build the Karuna House, an ambitious green building project in Yamhill County, Oregon that aims to meet the world's most demanding green building certifications, including Passive House, Minergie-P-ECO, & LEED for Homes Platinum.
The Karuna House's client, a leading proponent of smart climate policy and sound land use, is pursuing the project as a case study to shed light on the ways that the leading green building certifications and standards complement one another, and the ways that they may conflict.
Energy efficiency is one of those few things in this world that nobody really dislikes. How many people do you know who wish that things would cost more? “Gee, my gas bill was only $50 this month, I really wish it had been $75?” The biggest problem with energy efficiency is that it isn’t sexy. I think we can agree that we all would like to live in energy efficient homes, but most of us don’t really want to pay a hefty up-front premium, especially if we don’t get the emotional satisfaction of impressing our friends with sexy features like solar and newfangled mechanical equipment.
Well, there is a pretty simple solution that is low-cost, easy to do and it reduces energy consumption… wait for it………air sealing! “What?!” you say, “How is that going to impress anyone?” Hold that thought.
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Volunteer organizer for PCUN Javier Lara addresses the audience, while architect Patrick McDonald of Communitecture (left) and Green Hammer president Stephen Aiguier (right) look on. More photos
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Sometimes we green building folks live in a bubble. We talk back and forth among ourselves and trade information on best building practices, the benefits of rainscreens and the latest energy efficiency equipment. We often forget that sustainability is about society and creating a culture -- not just designing, constructing, and worrying whether the buildings will achieve gold, silver or platinum certification.
Last night I went to a reception where I saw all that green building can be. The occasion was a fundraiser for a union of Mexican immigrant farmworkers, called PCUN. This group, located in Woodburn, Oregon, leads a network called CAPACES, consisting of nine Latino organizations that do many things to help their constituents: building and managing housing, operating a radio station, providing services, and involving immigrant parents in their children’s education.
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Rendings of K-Station help visitors picture it in its completed stage. |
It’s been a while since our last Earth Advantage Broker alumni function, so after introducing our Earth Advantage Broker class coordinator Annah to architect Shawn Sullivan during an open house in June, we quickly hatched a plan to host an alumni event at his newest project, K-Station, along Killingsworth Street and Interstate Avenue in North Portland. Not only is this project unique as a multifamily LEED project shooting for platinum status, but it also has financial funding for homeowners through the Portland Housing Bureau. Funding which will ensure that the units, ranging from 600- 1200 sq. ft., are affordable for homeowners, especially those trying to buy for the first-time.
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Photo provided by www.MelanieMcCloskey.com |
How do you gauge the value of a home? Is it the amount of money spent in acquiring a property to house you and your belongings? Or maybe it is the location that adds worth to your abode. Could it be when you walk in the front door for the first time and realize ‘I’m home’? Or maybe it’s when you have the coolest house on the block. Many differing aspects create value and most of us have a hard time vocalizing just what makes a house valuable. Then the Passive House “Passivhaus” standard comes along, adding even more to consider.
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So you want to go solar, but can't decide which type of solar energy system to install. Should it be a solar water heater or a photovoltaic (solar electric) system? It's not just a matter of technology. Household size is one very important factor. A standard solar water heater in Oregon is sized for a family of four, and will produce between 2500 and 3000 kilo-watt hours worth of energy each year. However, smaller families may not use all of this energy, leaving some of it wasted.
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.
Read More »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.
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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?
Read More »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.
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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 1st 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.
Read More »Home builders and new homes sales professionals had it easy not too long ago. Practically anywhere in the country in 2004, 2005 and 2006 all one needed to do was stick a sign in the ground announcing a new home, or community, and the orders poured in. Our salespeople became order takers, and consequently some basic selling skills weren’t practiced and became rusty. For the sales rookies during this time frame new home sales strategies were sometimes never introduced to them. Why bother? We were all too busy getting rich.
The basics of new home sales are not any different from selling any other big ticket product.
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Would anyone think it’s wise to put a V-8 engine in a Vespa scooter? Well, I can think of some suicidal television talent that might think that was cool. With the famous last words -- “Watch this!” -- they would ride into oblivion. But, most of us aren’t showing off for the camera.
We’re more or less rational, so applying unnecessary power to a problem seems wasteful. But that’s standard practice for most new homes built with forced air systems. With today’s modern energy standards, a forced air furnace is typically oversized. For example, a new, 2200 sq. ft. home built to the current Northwest ENERGY STAR (2008) standard would have a design heat load of about 28,000 btu/hr. That’s the amount of heating capacity needed to keep the house comfortable in the coldest expected conditions for western Oregon and east of the Cascades.
Read More »The Unique Advantage of High Performance Homes
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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.
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Rivermark provides bike/walk-up teller access supporting alternative modes of transportation. |
The new Rivermark Community Credit Union on SE Hawthorne has been certified!
Rivermark is at the top of our leadership list, since this is the first building to achieve certification under the Earth Advantage Commercial pilot program, and it was the first to enroll. In addition to numerous energy efficiency and green features that helped it meet certification, this building is just plain elegant! It is designed by Baysinger Partners and constructed by LMC Construction.
The building's energy efficiency measures include a high performance envelope, efficient HVAC with economizer cooling and night flush capabilities, and a lighting system that uses 35% less energy than code. The project also adopted an acceptance testing protocol for all HVAC and lighting systems, and as a result, Rivermark was able to implement a number of post completion optimizations.
Read More »Design Team-Friendly, Family-Friendly
After several years as a pilot program, the LEED for Homes Mid-Rise rating system was officially launched by the USGBC near the end of 2010. We now have several projects that have been enrolled in the program and are now under construction.
The Mid-Rise program is designed for multifamily projects in the 4-6 story range, including those that may have a mixed-use component. It can be seen as a hybrid program between the LEED for Homes low-rise rating system and the LEED for New Construction program for commercial projects. Major differences in the Mid-Rise program from the standard LEED for Homes program include full unit-compartmentalization, measures that address the nature of larger multifamily projects such as bicycle parking, increased compact development, and tobacco smoke reduction. One other big difference is that the energy pathway for mid-rise projects will require the project’s energy performance to be at least 14% better than the ASHRAE 90.1 standard.
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...
Read More »So far Greenbuild 2010 has been jam-packed with great sessions. Today's pick: Reducing Embodied Carbon in the Built Environment. While energy efficiency is agreed to be a top priority for carbon reductions, speakers at this session also emphasized the importance of addressing the embodied energy and carbon in buildings (particularly those buildings that use significant amounts of concrete, a very GHG-intense material). The well made argument was based on the fact that we need to achieve radical GHG reductions within the next twenty years to hit target levels. By reducing embodied carbon in the buildings we are building today, we can make those reductions immediately while also benefiting from the reduced emissions during occupancy as a result of energy efficiencies. The bottom line: embodied carbon reductions provide the benefit of immediate emissions reductions.
Read More »This past week in Chicago has been an exciting buzz of anticipation along with a cautious touch brought on by the continuing economic malaise. But the annual gathering of green professionals hosted by the US Green Building Council has continued to grow over the years and this year it looks no different with what looks like will be over 30,000 in attendance.
Read More »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.
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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.
If your sustainable product team is looking to learn more about your audience and hone your message, we invite you to sign up for our one-day course, Marketing the Value of Sustainability, and challenge you to take your best shot at answering a few green marketing basics.
Read More »With recent affirmation by the Army Corps of Engineers that Arctic warming has resumed at a record pace, the planet has never been under such stress. How can we change our built environment to be more harmonious with our earth? The PBS series E2 points out that "design today must reflect a new spirit, one that sees nature and commerce as one; not as mutually exclusive but mutually coexistent."
Featuring Edward Mazria on the future of design.
By Guest Writer Jordan Palmeri, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
Are you aware of the Accessory Dwelling Units concept? An ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) is a second dwelling unit created on a residential lot. The second unit is created as a smaller auxiliary to the main dwelling.. These homes represent a tremendous opportunity to improve a community’s environmental, economic, and social well being. From an environmental standpoint, small homes use fewer materials, less energy, create less waste, and increase density. Initially, they can also provide a more feasible scale for incorporating reused and natural building materials, and achieving green building standards such as Passive House and the Living Building Challenge.
Read More »Think of it as a series of TED talks with a common sustainability theme… On November 4th sustainability leaders from around the Northwest will convene for Green Day Forum. Discussions will take place around regional trends and policy, how sustainable building is moving to the next level, whether technology influences occupant energy behavior, and what the issues are that green building is ignoring.
Read More »In a typical year, millions of houses are built. Each house will last 50 to 100 years. Today each new house encumbers society with a debt of energy required to operate it over its life. The vast majority of houses built today are old-fashioned energy hogs and each one is a missed opportunity.
Energy visionaries have set their sights on homes that create more than they consume. In ten to twenty years, every new building could be a “zero-energy building,” Or “net zero.” The technology exists today, all we lack is the proper motivation.
Read More »It’s more than bamboo floors and low-VOC paint. A green home contains a collection of design elements, materials, and equipment assembled with careful attention to detail.
The global economy is about to enter the zero-energy generation. Over the next 2 decades, residential buildings will evolve to a point where they generate as much energy as they consume over the course of a typical year. Because it is generally less expensive to conserve energy than it is to generate energy, this “net-zero” energy approach starts with the outside shell: floors, walls, and ceilings. It’s like an overcoat and requires as much insulating value as can be accommodated in the walls, ceilings, and floors. Air leakage must be restricted as much as possible by sealing every opening, crack, and penetration with caulk, gaskets, or expanding foam sealant. Windows lose 7 to 10 times more heat than walls, so the windows must be oriented to maximize or minimize heat loss and solar gain as appropriate to the local climate and building design. The building shell has no moving parts and should last the life of the house, so it pays to make it as efficient as possible at the outset.
Read More »Third-party certification offers many benefits to home builders. The certifier is an independent company that assists the builder in identifying green building measures, such as those above, and then ensures that the measures are properly installed. Many builders want to build green, but may not have all the necessary experience or information.
Read More »While fewer new homes were built in the past year in the Portland metropolitan area than in the previous year, the market share of third party certified homes increased. Twenty three percent (23%) of all newly constructed homes in the Portland metropolitan area sold between May 1, 2009 and April 30, 2010 received a third party certification. This finding is based upon data reported by the Portland area RMLS to Earth Advantage Institute.
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Earth Advantage Institute is a nonprofit organization that works with the building industry to help implement sustainable building practices. Our mission is to create an immediate, practical and cost-effective path to sustainability and reduction of carbon. More »
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