Green Housing
Monday, October 20th, 2008
California homebuilders lead the nation in green building. This is a true statement, but it doesn’t tell half the story about green building in California. In 1990, a new home in California was charged with creating over 11 tons of CO2 per year. In 2006, a new home in California was charged with creating over 8 tons of CO2 per year. New homebuilders in this state now deliver a product that creates 25% less CO2 than their product did 15 years ago. New homebuilders have been going green long before it was fashionable to do so!
Green House
Here is the real story behind California homes and their creation of green house gases. There are approximately 13 million homes in California. New single family homes in 2007 were approximately 85,000. That is less than 0.1% of the total homes in the state. The impact of new homes on the total green house gas creation is negligible. The true impact of green house gases from residential homes is not through new construction, but from existing homes.
How do homes create green house gases, you ask. Well, the home really doesn’t. With the exception of some small amount of vapors coming out of fresh paints, stains and glues and a little wood in the fireplace or a natural gas water heater, homes are very clean and enviro friendly. The problem is people live in homes. People use electricity and natural gas. It is the use of electricity and natural gas that creates the green house gas emissions.
The average single family home uses enough natural gas and electricity that generates 8 tons of CO2 per year. Your wall plug doesn’t create CO2, but the electric generating plant does and then sends you electricity over the wires. Regulators attribute your use of energy with the green house gas emissions of the power producers.
Add it all up, your new house creates 8 tons of CO2 emissions and your older home creates 11 tons of CO2 emissions. Another way to look at it is the older, existing homes create 65.7 million tons of CO2 per year and new homes create 0.6 million tons of CO2 per year. Regulators continue to push new and stricter regulations on new home construction, while ignoring the homes of existing voters.
How much more blood can you squeeze out of that rock?
Thanks Steve. This is fascinating information, and it’s refreshing to hear a homebuilder that is concerned about green causes. It sure seems it is the things we do AWAY from our homes that causes the most environmental damage, however, I was wondering if you think that California should pass a law that all new homes be LEED certified, rather than a strictly voluntary system, and LEED homes have less mold problems, which cost home owners big bucks down the road…
http://www.greenhomeguide.org/green_home_programs/leed_for_homes.html
Scott,
I do not think California needs a law requiring all new homes to be LEED certified for two reasons. The first is that California already has a law that requires new homes to be built under the “Green Building Code” under Title 24. This code was just approved by the HCD and becomes mandatory, starting in January of 2009 and completely required by January of 2011. HCD, the California Housing and Community Development Department, has routinely increased building standards for the past 25 years, so this next step to mandatory Green Building was not unexpected. Second, LEED for Homes is a private commercial venture. While it has received wonderful response and accolades, I still have a problem with the government requiring me to utilize a private company, especially one it does not control and can not amend or modify its programs.
Thanks for the comment!
Steve
[...] I like that Steve isn’t afraid to address tough issues like the economics of housing, or green building – WHICH HIS COMPANY DOESN’T EVEN DO (YET). Obviously, his mind works beyond just [...]
Is Brookfield a “Green Builder”? Well, from one perspective, the fact we build in California requires us to be a “Green Builder”. Title 24 for the State of California requires energy efficiency levels far greater than the rest of the United States. In addition, Brookfield uses Green Building techniques like hot water circulation systems in every home we build. We are also very “waste conscious” and divert the vast majority of our construction waste product to recycling programs. We provide separated pick up of wood products, concrete products and metal products, keeping these items out of our landfills. We are also focusing efforts on water conservation through the use of weather sensors, recycled water and drought tolerant landscaping palates. In most of our projects, we use “tight duct work” to limit heating a cooling losses.
So, while we have not attempted to achieve “certification” from one of the dozens of “Green Builder Programs” in the market today. I would suggest that Brookfield provides a very energy efficient, and conservation minded building product. We are moving towards a “certification” program with our next generation of homes, starting in early 2009. This will provide us with a third party recognition of the “Green Building” we do construct.
Wow, found your post via the Google blogserach page, Good post, I like your writing style! I’ve added to my feed reader, and will be reading your posts from now on.
Thanks, John the Pirate. Tell your parrot to spread the word!
Steve
These are really good points – I’d realized that existing homes accounted for a lot of the CO2 emissions, but when it’s but into perspective (against new homes) the problem is clear…we need to
I read most of the pdf document and think another great point is that home builders where able to increase the size of homes by several hundred square feet and still make the 25%/unit decrease in CO2 emissions.
It’s a shame that many people don’t mention the good things industries are doing (such as green building for years) and instead only focusing on one or two bad things.
Jayson,
The issue really comes down to “new homes don’t vote”. When a legislator votes for a bill that requires existing home owners to do something or spend money, they get lots of phone calls and emails telling him or her how bad a job they are doing.
When a legislator votes for a bill that requires new home builders or new homes to do something or spend money, they don’t get any phone calls or emails. Or, if they do, the response from existing homeowners is “good job!”.
The message is “make someone else pay for it or do it, don’t make me!” So, which way do you think the legislator is going to vote?
Steve