When Steve Levinthal got ready to build his house in Glenview, he knew he wanted it to be environmentally friendly and energy-efficient–translation, “green.”
Levinthal chose a green architect, Nathan Kipnis Architects in Evanston, and green builder, Sturm Builders in Northbrook, to help him design and build his green house.
The result is a house that is ahead of its time in green features. Instead of a furnace and air conditioner, its geothermal system heats the house in winter by pulling heated fluid from the Earth, then cools it in summer by sending the fluid back. Solar panels on the roof generate electricity. Two-by-6 wall studs, set 24 inches apart, allow for more insulation and use less wood. Inside, green products include low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints and cabinet finishes, bamboo flooring and nontoxic adhesives.
Levinthal’s house is the exception, at least in the single-family market. And the special features are mostly available at the custom level, where buyer, architect and builder form a green team and take time to track down green materials.
Multifamily builders are winning the green race, launching dozens of projects that are easier on the environment. Their green theme is mostly structural, so buyers still have a hard time finding green interior features.
“Building quality buildings means doing the right thing, even if the buyer can’t see it,” said Kerry Dickson of Chicago-based Related Midwest, which is building 340 On The Park, a condo high-rise north of Grant Park. Related Midwest is using at least 27 percent local building products to reduce energy consumed in transportation. It is diverting 81 percent of its construction waste from landfills by recycling it. And it is installing a tank to collect storm water for its landscaping.
340 On The Park is one of many new residential high-rises with green roofs. Others include Residential Homes of America’s Avenue East in the Streeterville neighborhood and Optima Inc.’s Optima Old Orchard Woods in Skokie. In addition to providing havens for residents, green roofs help cleanse the air and protect buildings from heat and noise. If every building had a green roof, say environmentalists, cities would be free of “urban heat islands” that accelerate heat build-up in summer.
In Grayslake, Station Square, the multifamily addition to the completed, single-family Prairie Crossing, takes a simpler approach. The site is green, with plenty of open space and an organic farm. The condos’ window placement allows them to be 100 percent lighted by the sun during the day.
Much slower to go green are single-family builders. The higher they are on the price ladder, though, the more green they are.
At the semi-custom level, Airhart Construction in Wheaton is one of the pioneers. Its houses, starting at $450,000, are framed like Levinthal’s, with 2x6s, and insulated with a product made of recycled newspapers. Airhart is one of 68 Illinois builders that have qualified as Energy Star Partners under a U.S. Department of Energy-Environmental Protection Agency program.
On the remodeling side, where buyers don’t choose from amenity packages A, B or C, contractors embrace green products as buyers request them.
Palatine-based remodeler Scott Sevon of Sevonco Inc. has a long list of green products he’s used in clients’ houses, including tankless water heaters, soy-based insulation, tubular skylights and reclaimed-wood floors.
Green shoppers may find that much of the homework is left to them.
Steve Smith of Prairie Grove found an architectural firm, Farr Associates in Chicago, to design his house but became his own general contractor after the one he hired “just scratched his head every time I suggested a new idea.”
Smith’s advice: “Try to find a builder who shares your vision but be prepared to find many of your own subcontractors and products.” Smith also employed the “250-mile rule.” He chose most of his materials from local suppliers to minimize fuel costs.
Green gauges
Buyers intent on going green have several yardsticks by which to measure builders and their homes. The best known are the Energy Star Program, National Association of Home Builders’ Green Home Building Program and the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Homes Program.
The oldest, Energy Star, measures energy efficiency. An Energy Star Qualified New Home is at least 15 percent more energy-efficient than one built to the 2004 International Residential Code. An Energy Star Partner builder has proved to a third party that he is building such homes. A home is certified by going through a Home Energy Star Rating System inspection, which can be initiated by a homeowner as well as a builder.
Green Home Building is fueled by NAHB-sponsored classes and seminars that educate potential green builders. It measures a home’s lot design, indoor air quality, homeowner education, global impact, and resource, energy and water efficiency. It is tailored to regions, so water conservation, for example, is a higher priority in Arizona than in Illinois.
What’s expected to become the golden yardstick, LEED for Homes, is still in the pilot stage but getting lots of attention. A LEED home, for example, cannot be landscaped with invasive plants or built with non-FSC-certified woods. The Forest Stewardship Council certifies forest management practices that produce what it considers to be responsibly grown wood.
The home also must rack up a minimum number of points based on innovation/design, sustainability of the site, water efficiency, use of green materials, indoor air quality and homeowner awareness. And it must meet Energy Star requirements.
LEED also has rules that discourage McMansions. The larger the house, the more credits it needs. The size threshold for a four-bedroom house is 2,400 square feet. “The 10,000-square-foot house with just Energy Star appliances and low-E windows [designed to keep heat in during the winter and out during the summer] cannot become LEED-certified,” said Jay Hall, the program’s acting director.
Of the 98 projects in the LEED pilot program, none is in Illinois.
Chicago wants to change this. “The mayor is constantly working to set the bar higher for Chicago’s green housing,” says Molly Sullivan from the Department of Housing. “We’re setting an example by using green products in affordable housing projects–new and rehab–that are funded by the city. And we’re opening our homes for tours so other homeowners can get ideas.”
In April, the city’s Department of Environment will launch its Chicago Green Homes Program, a voluntary guide for building sustainable and energy-efficient homes. In addition, it will publish the “Green Home Remodel Guide,” which offers green remodeling tips and resources.
Chicago has a growing list of LEED-certified buildings. They include the Chicago Center for Green Technology at 445 N. Sacramento Blvd., several branches of the Chicago Public Library including West Englewood at 1745 W. 63rd St. and the 22nd District Police Station at 1900 W. Monterey Ave. in Morgan Park.
Definitions of green vary widely, so it’s hard to come up with a number or percentage of homes that is green. Energy Star says that nationally in 2005, 10 percent of new single-family houses were green by its definition. More than 525,000 new homes qualified, Energy Star says. In Illinois, fewer than 3 percent of new single-family homes qualified.
`About to explode’
In a year, this picture will be different, builders say. “The number of green builders and products is about to explode,” said Matt Belcher, a St. Louis-based builder and the Midwest’s representative to the NAHB’s Green Building Subcommittee. “This is no longer the frontier; it’s becoming the norm. The next step is to see building codes catch up to green technology and for more lenders to add green incentives. The way the industry is going now, you have to get on the green bus or get run over by it.”
One catalyst will be the U.S. Green Builders Council’s location for its next conference in November: McCormick Place.
Added Belcher: ” It’s not like 10 years from now we’ll look back and say we shouldn’t have built green.”
