Builders Honored for Green Building Practices

Fourteen members of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) were honored for exemplary green building practices during the ninth annual NAHB National Green Building Conference.

The number of entries in the National Green Building Awards competition was triple the number submitted for the 2006 awards, according to NAHB Green Building Subcommittee Chair Ray Tonjes, a custom builder in Austin, Texas, whose business focuses on green building . “This interest is an indication of the explosive growth in green building, and NAHB members are at the forefront of this movement,” he says.

The winners are:

• Single-Family Custom Home of the Year: The W.H. Hull Company, Bend, Ore.
• Single-Family Luxury Home of the Year: Durano Construction, Bernalillo, N.M.
• NAHB Model Green Home Building Guidelines Home of the Year: Stitt Energy Systems, Rogers, Ark.
• Single-Family Concept Home of the Year: SunMountain Construction, Albuquerque, N.M.
• Multifamily Project of the Year: The High Point community, Mithun, Seattle.
• Land Development Project of the Year: Pringle Creek Community, Salem, Ore.
• Green Product Marketing Project of the Year: Arch Wood Protection Inc., Smyrna, Ga.
• Green Development Marketing Project of the Year: Wonderland Hill Development Company, Lyons, Colo.
• Green Home Marketing Project of the Year: Suncadia, CMI Homes Inc., Roslyn, Wash.
• Green Building Program of the Year: Built Green, Master Builders of King and Snohomish Counties, Wash.
• New Green Building Program of the Year: GreenBuilding Council of the Home Builders Association of St. Louis and Eastern Missouri
• Builder Advocate of the Year: Don Ferrier, Ferrier Custom Homes, Forth Worth, Texas
• Remodeler Advocate of the Year: Carl Seville, Seville Consulting, Atlanta
• Group Advocate of the Year: Cherokee Investment Partners, Raleigh, N.C.

Energy efficiency, water and resource conservation, sustainable or recycled products, and indoor air quality are increasingly incorporated into the everyday process of home building, Tonjes notes, demonstrating that green building is increasingly going mainstream.

“When a green home doesn’t look or feel significantly different from one built using more traditional construction methods, when builders have the tools and resources to build them without significant material or labor cost increases, and when consumers readily accept the finished product, then ‘green’ has arrived,” Tonjes says. “These winners have helped lead the way to market acceptance. They are pioneers.”

The exploding market for sustainable, environmentally friendly and recycled building products, along with the greater availability of educational opportunities for builders, has accelerated green building’s acceptance. A recent NAHB- McGraw Hill Construction survey indicated that by the end of 2007 more than half of NAHB’s members -- who build more than 80 percent of the homes in this country -- will incorporate green practices into the development, design and construction of new homes.

More information is available at www.nahb.org.