Similarly, the sustainable features that Ideal Homes uses add about $3,500 to the cost of its houses, but president Vernon McKown says making strategic changes such as reducing duct leakage by 20 percent has been cheap and has had dramatic energy-saving benefits. “We like to look at things that have a five-year return on investment,” McKown explains. “If the cost [of the feature] is $500 or less or has a significant savings, our buyers tend to like it.”

Either way, Ideal’s approach hasn’t hurt sales. “What we’ve found is that on the high end it’s harder to sell, but it’s easier on the lower end of the market,” McKown says. “We’re saving our customers $50 per month on their utilities. But high-end buyers don’t give a damn about saving money on their utilities.”

The California Integrated Waste Management Board agrees that a green building may cost more up front, but the board says the end result is lower operating costs over the life of the building. “We generally say green building adds a 2 percent to 5 percent increase in hard costs,” says McStain’s Mednick. “But what’s the [real] cost if you factor in energy savings?”

Architect Pfeiffer argues that sometimes the benefits of a green home are immediate, because some sustainable products–a metal roof, for example–enable home buyers to lower their insurance premiums. Other items, such as tankless water heaters, can bring tax benefits.

“Just imagine you have a house with a $1,500 mortgage payment, a $300-a-month utility bill, and a $100-a-month insurance bill–it’s really costing you $1,900 a month to own that house,” Pfeiffer says. “What if the house had a $1,550 mortgage payment, a $100-a-month utility bill, and a $50 insurance bill? Which house is more affordable?

“The problem is that too many builders and bureaucrats aren’t looking at the big picture,” Pfeiffer continues. “It’s not payback we’re talking about; it’s immediately cheaper to own the better-designed home.”

Don’t Forget Marketing
Marketing is one of the most overlooked issues in the green building debate. What good is a green home if the buyer doesn’t see the value in it? Strangely enough, builders are abandoning the term “green” in favor of more-effective words. “There’s a movement toward high performance, efficiency, and health,” Languell says. “The word ‘green’ doesn’t tell consumers what the features will do for them.” Languell says the terms “health” and “energy efficiency” are more effective with buyers.

“A lot of the equation is with the salesperson knowing what the buyer is interested in and explaining the benefits,” Friesenhahn says.

Ideal Homes’ McKown puts it this way: If you tell customers they can spend $5 and save $10, that’s a no-brainer. “Once your sales guys have figured out a way to communicate it to their customers, it sells itself,” McKown says.

–BUILDING PRODUCTS
–This story first appeared in Builder magazine.

Starting Out
These tips can help you start the process of siting, building, and selling a sustainable home:

• Pick just a couple of green strategies and focus on them. Experts say energy efficiency is your best bet.

• Look for features that have a five-year return on investment. Evaluate the payback of features carefully.

• Maximize your site’s natural topography to reduce drainage and grading costs.

• Design with passive solar gain in mind.

• Modify your exterior elevations to reflect the lot’s orientation and maximize energy efficiency.

• Use radiant reflective roofing materials to keep houses cool and energy costs down.

• Use housewrap to create a tight envelope.

• Reduce duct leakage.

• Perform blower-door tests to save money later. An energy audit can tell you whether your techniques are working.

• Forget the word “green.” Instead, sell “high performance,” “energy efficiency,” or “health.” These terms resonate more clearly with buyers.

• Showcase the benefits of green houses to help you differentiate yourself from the competition.

• Tell buyers why your houses are different.

• Give buyers a logical reason to pay a little more for sustainable features, such as the money and the natural resources they’ll save.

• Create a logo to help buyers identify your green products.

• Train your sales staff to explain green benefits to buyers.

• Join a voluntary green building program. A group’s identifying label is good for recognition and marketing.

–N.F.M.

Mithun Architects. The 129-acre High Point redevelopment project in Seattle has a sophisticated site plan, including a natural drainage system that retains 98 percent of the stormwater on the site. Mithun Architects designed 600 Energy Star-qualified rental units that were built using modified advanced framing techniques to avoid waste, super-efficient combination hot water and heating closed-loop boilers in every unit, airtight drywall construction, and fresh-air vents in each living space. 206-623-3344. www.mithun.com.

McStain Neighborhoods. Single-family houses and townhomes in this Stapleton, Colo., community are built to Energy Star standards. The homes are sealed during framing to eliminate drafts and feature blown-in cellulose insulation that provides R-38 ceilings and R-21 exterior walls. Other standard elements include a 90 percent efficient furnace, sealed ductwork joints, low-E windows, and airtight recessed lighting. It costs about $6,600 per home to build to this level, but McStain Neighborhoods estimates that monthly utility bills will be less than $100. 303-494-5900. www.mcstain.com.

Pardee Homes. Built under the company’s Living Smart program, the homes at Pacific Highlands Ranch in San Diego are capable of producing 50 percent or more of the energy they consume. In addition to optional solar panels and other sustainable features, the homes have R-19 roofs and R-13 walls, sealed framing, water-conserving fixtures and fittings, recycled-content materials, on-demand water heaters, low-odor paints, and porous driveway pavers that allow water drainage into the soil. 310-475-3525. www.pardeehomes.com.

Beazer Homes. In order to obtain a Gold rating under Masco’s Environments for Living program, the homes of Verano at Bartram Park, in Jacksonville, Fla., will exceed model energy codes by 30 percent. The homes feature a fresh-air system, sealed combustion appliances, sealed framing to eliminate drafts, R-30 attic insulation, and 13-SEER cooling units. The program’s comfort guarantee promises that the temperature at the location of the home’s thermostat will not vary more than 3 degrees from the center of any conditioned room within the thermostat’s zone. 904-886-3460. www.beazer.com.