We’re definitely getting somewhere when affordable housing gets green standards, too. — BGM
Habitat for Humanity Gets Greener
Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit home building organization headquartered in Americus, Ga., announced plans on Tuesday to build 5,000 “green” homes around the country for low-income families.
The homes, built over five years, will meet EnergyStar guidelines or other green building standards, like LEED. The project expands on a pilot program and is being done in conjunction with the Home Depot Foundation.
“This is unquestionably the largest scale accelerated initiative we’ve taken on to drive green building,” said Jonathan Reckford, the chief executive of Habitat for Humanity International. The $30 million initiative, he added, would bring rapid payback for families in terms of lower energy bills.
Mr. Reckford acknowledged that green building carries higher upfront costs.
The additional upfront cost for an EnergyStar home (compared with regular Habitat homes), for example, is about $3,000, and building a home certified to LEED or other green standards costs an extra $5,000 over a typical Habitat home, which costs about $75,000 to build, Mr. Reckford said.
The higher costs owed to extra materials, he said, as well as the certification process itself and extra training.
Overall, about 20 to 30 percent of Habitat homes are built in accordance with a “green standard,” the organization said.
Read the original post at http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/habitat-for-humanity-gets-greener/
Tags: building, energy, EnergyStar, green, LEED