Construction Industry Names Best Green Builders of 2008

The awards dinner kicked off the 11th annual NAHB National Green Building Conference in Dallas last weekend. Don Ferrier of Ferrier Custom Homes in Fort Worth, honored as the 2007 Green Builder Advocate of the Year, served as master of ceremonies.

In a trying year for the home building industry, when housing starts dropped to record lows in a sputtering economy, green homes represent "hope and the future, and the future is green home building," Ferrier said.

"The ladies and gentlemen we honor this evening understand that," he said. "These awards honor their leadership and their practical example to others in the industry."

The winners are:

• Concept Home of the Year - Clifton View Homes, CVH Inc., for a home in Coupeville, Washington. Tight insulation and other energy-efficient features meant homeowners spent $76 on electricity in the first month they lived there – and that was before the builder installed photovoltaic panels on the rooftop and the monthly bill became a credit, rather than a debit, Ferrier said.


• Affordable Home of the Year - Imagine Homes, San Antonio, Texas. The company noted for its cost-effective techniques to attract first-time buyers was honored for the second year in a row. Imagine Homes also won an award in San Antonio's first Annual Green Building Awards, which held its own awards ceremony on Friday.


• Luxury Home of the Year - Solaire Homebuilders of Bend, Oregon. This custom home was built with reclaimed and recycled materials and designed to be 60 percent more energy efficient than required by code.

Celebrate Del Webb home in Fredricksburg, Virginia (Photo courtesy Del Webb)



• Production Home of the Year - Celebrate by Del Webb, an active-adult community in Fredericksburg, Virginia, is taking green features to a larger scale and now certifying the homes in this new development to the National Green Building Standard.


• Single-family Remodeling Project of the Year - Honors went to Red-B Construction for a Durham, North Carolina, home with striking design and extensive use of deconstruction techniques that improve resource efficiency.


• Multifamily Remodeling Project of the Year - Hardwick G.C. Inc. of Orlando, Florida, turned an early 20th-century bungalow into a charming duplex that has a rainwater harvesting system, native landscaping and other water-efficient features.


• Multifamily Rental Project of the Year - Tonti Properties' 270-unit community in Frisco, Texas, is the first Energy Star certified development in the region. The company created an on-site tree farm during contruction to enable landscapers to replant trees moved during the building process.


• Condominium Project of the Year - Onion Flats LLC of Philadelphia created an eight-unit infill project in the Northern Liberties neighborhood featuring slick, modern design, solar panels, green roofs and great city views.


• Townhouse Project of the Year - Asdal Builders LLC was honored for a New Jersey rental development that caters to senior citizens and focuses on sustainable, low-maintenance design and cost-effective geothermal heating.



A home in the award-winning Woodlands Edge Development of the Year in Little Rock, Arkansas (Photo courtesy Woodlands Edge)

• Development of the Year - The community of Woodlands Edge in Little Rock, Arkansas, developed by Rocket Properties LLC has nature trails, wildlife preservation areas and an extensive education program for its residents focused on environmental stewardship of the grounds.


• Build San Antonio Green and the Missoula, Montana Building Industry Association were honored as the local green home building programs of the year, while the city of Chicago was named Governmental Advocate of the Year for its extensive voluntary energy-efficiency improvement programs and for encouraging green roofs on high-rise buildings.


• EcoBroker International won Group Advocate of the Year honors for its green building education efforts among real estate brokers.


• Donna Shirey, a longtime NAHB Remodelers leader and green-building professional from Seattle, was honored as Remodeling Advocate of the Year.


• Architect Michelle Kaufmann, known for her groundbreaking green and modular design, was named Individual Advocate of the Year.


• John Freer, a longtime Missoula Building Industry Association leader and founder of the association's green building council, was honored as NAHB Green Builder Advocate of the Year.

Founding contributor Tommy Ford Construction endowed the scholarship in honor of Texas entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens, who gave the keynote speech at the awards dinner.

The new scholarship fund will provide support to students in a two-year or four-year design and construction education and training program. The National Housing Endowment will manage the fund.

As demand for authentic, verifiable green home construction practices rises, the National Green Building Standard™ is back on the presses for a second printing.

The standard is the first green rating system for new homes, remodeling projects and residential communities to be approved by the American National Standards Institute. The first printing was released by BuilderBooks, the publishing arm for the National Association of Home Builders in March and has sold out.

The National Green Building Standard is the only national standard to certify green home remodeling and renovation projects.

More than 1,000 home building and remodeling projects are in the process of being scored for points accumulated toward energy, water and resource efficiency; lot and site development; indoor environmental quality and home operation and maintenance – the hallmarks of green building.

An online scoring tool is available at www.nahbgreen.org, where builders and remodelers can also find NAHB Research Center-accredited verifiers to inspect their green projects.

The standard's four construction thresholds - Bronze, Silver, Gold and Emerald - provide builders with a means to green at any level from above-code efficiencies that save water up to the highest level of sustainable green building including energy savings of 60 percent – the minimum required for Emerald – and even higher. Subdivisions and developments can be rated from one to four stars, depending on the environmental challenges of the site.

The first single-family home, in Tucson, Arizona, was certified under the standard in January. The first development, in Burns Harbor, Indiana, was certified in March.

The standard is applicable to apartments and condominiums, hotels and motels and other residential spaces. It can be used for individual projects or be the basis for a voluntary green building program. Ninety state and local home building associations include the standard as a rating system choice as affiliates of the NAHB National Green Building Program.

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