Resources for Community Development built the affordable Northgate Apartments in Oakland with environmentally friendly linoleum flooring and double-glazed aluminum frame windows, minimizing the use of toxins associated with vinyl.

At Ironwood subdivision in Pleasanton, builder Ponderosa Homes offers buyers green options from fluorescent lighting to radiant barrier roof sheathing to Zero Energy Homes designed to produce about as much energy as they consume.

They are all part of a small but growing trend: green home building. The idea is to remodel and build homes that consume fewer resources, have improved air quality, generate lower energy bills and are better for the environment.

Green home building has turned from a movement into a "quiet revolution," according to the National Association of Home Builders. Nationwide, more than 47,000 homes were built using local green building program guidelines from 1990 to 2003.

In 2003 alone, more than14,000 green homes were constructed.

The Golden State is helping lead the way. An estimated 5 to 10 percent of new Bay Area homes are being built with at least some green building practices, consultant Geof Syphers said. By a broader measure, 15 percent of California homes built in 2004 were Energy Star homes, compared with nearly 10 percent nationally. Energy Star homes are energy efficient but don't necessarily incorporate other green features such as minimizing construction waste.

Proponents say that green homes are more comfortable, durable and have higher resale value. Some green items don't cost extra, though $20,000 solar electric systems can be a tougher sell, especially given California's high cost of housing. But even that could change with the governor's proposal to create 1 million solar roofs on homes and businesses over the next 13 years.

After hippies and others sowed the seeds of the green home building movement in the 1960s and 1970s, it is finally becoming more mainstream. Green products are stocked on the shelves of Home Depot. Major builders from Centex to Pardee have built green homes. More than 30 green home building programs exist nationwide.

Locally, nonprofit and government agencies are encouraging green building by doing everything from sponsoring workshops to certifying green building professionals to organizing the first East Bay green home tour May 1, which is expected to draw up to 2,000 people.

"We really think (green home building) makes a lot of sense," said Wendy Sommer, senior project manager with StopWaste, Alameda County's waste management and resource conservation agency. "It's not just good for the environment. It's healthier, and it saves money for the occupants."

Stop Waste, Bay Area Build It Green, Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority and Green Resource Center are organizing the East Bay green home tour, which includes homes from Levitch's remodeled bungalow to Ponderosa's new project.

"They don't look weird," Sommer said. "They look nice."

The May 1 home tour and vendor fair are aimed at increasing awareness of green building. Homeowners already are starting to inquire about it.

"A lot of people are concerned about health issues surrounding paints, stains and varnishes and flooring," said Brian Gitt, executive director of Green Resource Center in Berkeley.

Green resources

The center runs Berkeley's green building program and offers free resources for the Bay Area: workshops, the Ask an Expert hotline, and an online database listing green materials available at stores from Home Depot to Truitt & White.

Truitt & White, a Berkeley hardware store and lumber yard catering to building professionals, has sold green products for about five years and has seen demand rise. For some items, the store offers only green products, such as formaldehyde-free insulation, marketing director Judy Ettlinger said.

Ettlinger also is interim president of Bay Area Build It Green, a nonprofit agency that has certified more than 200 green building professionals, including 50 to 60 who meet monthly as part of the Green Remodelers Guild. "It's a real committed and growing group," Ettlinger said.

Green home building has come a long way. In the 1960s and 1970s, it didn't even have a name, said Robin Freeman, who heads the environmental program at Merritt College in Oakland. Initial efforts looked like science projects with huge, south-facing glass walls that overheated, he said. Everything had to be invented or handmade because there wasn't anything available commercially.

The 1970s energy crisis increased interest in green building. In the late 1970s, Merritt students and faculty began to build the Self-Reliant House, showing how to improve the sustainability of a suburban home.

The 1,200-square-foot house is a work in progress. It has solar electric panels, solar water heating and uses daylighting through skylights and double-glazed windows. There is fluorescent lighting, radiant electric heating and passive solar heating (from tiles made from recycled bottles).

All office equipment is reused. The kitchen has concrete countertops made with 30 percent recycled fly ash. The bathroom has a linoleum floor and low-flow toilet. Yard waste is composted and rainwater is collected in a 500-gallon tank.

"During the day, we reduce our energy use probably by 90 percent," Freeman said.

In 1994, Merritt hosted a conference on green building materials for about 100 people. It has evolved into an event PG&E hosts at its Pacific Energy Center.

"Now it looks like a regular trade show," Freeman said.

The building industry has taken notice, relaunching its California Green Builder Program, the focus of which is to use less energy and water, improve air quality and recycle at least half of construction waste. The fast-growing effort was named Green Program of the Year at the National Association of Home Builders' green building conference last week.

Builders going green

California is expected to add about 1,000 homes by green builders in 2005 and 3,000 in 2006, program director Don Mull said. So far, the voluntary program has focused on the Central Coast and Central Valley, but the plan is to extend it statewide, he said. In a few years, he said homes built by green builders could be 5 or 6 percent of California's new-home market, or around 12,000 a year.

"Home buyers are starting to ask home builders for it, and as a result home builders are starting to get interested," Mull said.

An example is Pleasanton's Ponderosa Homes. Its new 191-home Ironwood subdivision, where three-bedroom houses start in the mid-$900,000s, offers green elements and building techniques, mostly as options.

One of the model homes has a "Green Gallery," which displays and explains all of the green features available from standard low-emissivity windows and low/no toxic paints to optional whole house fans and solar electric panels.

Ironwood Classics has sold 33 homes, with buyers flocking to its location near downtown Pleasanton and the city's top-notch schools. So far none has ordered the total $40,000 green package, a fully loaded Zero Energy Home.

But three-fourths of buyers have paid

$2,500 to $3,000 for the TechShield radiant barrier roof sheathing, which trims energy use by reducing attic temperatures up to 30 degrees, Ponderosa sales manager Jeff Mackey said.

"They can understand it," Mackey said. "It makes sense to them. The other features, they're just not ready for it. We're dealing with $1 million homes here. People only have so much money to spend."

Palo Alto builder Clarum Homes has been making green homes its standard since 2003 with its Enviro-Home developments — Zero Energy Homes with features such as solar electric power, on-demand water heaters and radiant roof barriers.

Enviro-Homes are designed to reduce energy bills by up to 90 percent. Clarum plans to build about 200 Enviro-Homes this year from townhomes in San Leandro to a subdivision in east Riverside County, as it expands to desert climates.

Clarum's developments have been popular, particularly with first-time buyers. Vista Montana in Watsonville sold out its 177 houses and 80 townhomes, with market-rate homes selling from the low $400,000s to $700,000. The green elements cost an average of $20,000 per house.

"It's not necessarily what brings the buyer to the subdivision," Clarum Vice President Nicole Gittleson said. "But when they find out about it, it's an added bonus."

Cost barriers

About 15 to 20 percent of the marketplace wants really green building and is willing to pay for it, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

"A lot of people say they want green building, but when it comes time to decide on options when they cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, the marketplace dwindles quickly," said John Frith, spokesman for the California Building Industry Association.

In California, government mandates already have added tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a home, he said. The CBIA likes the California Green Builder program because it is voluntary.

"It needs to be a builder decision based on market realities," Frith said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to create 1 million solar roofs on homes and businesses by 2018 will help, said Bernadette Del Chiaro, clean energy advocate for Environment California.

If California passes the legislation, SB 1, the state could take the world's lead in solar energy, moving ahead of current leaders Japan and Germany, she said. By 2018, about half of California's new-home developments could be built with solar power, up from about 1 percent of new houses today, she said. Solar power demand already has been increasing since California's energy crisis.

"It's moving away from the niche world that is only high-tech entrepreneurs and hippies, and it's moving into suburbia," Del Chiaro said.

Green building also is spreading to affordable housing.

National Resources Defense Council and The Enterprise Foundation/Enterprise Social Investment Corp. last fall launched a $550 million nationwide Green Communities Initiative to build 8,500 green, affordable homes over five years.

Closer to home, Clarum just finished a 132-unit affordable apartment complex at Vista Montana in Watsonville featuring a 60-kilowatt solar electric system.

Berkeley nonprofit Resources for Community Development built the green, affordable 42-unit Northgate Apartments in Oakland and is now developing green, affordable apartments in Alameda and Berkeley.

"Now that we know all about the benefits of green building ... we're really happy we can provide them," RCD's Lisa Motoyama said.

Cutting waste

Construction and demolition debris account for 21 percent of the material disposed in Alameda County landfills. A typical 2,000-square-foot home generates almost 13 tons of waste. Alameda County's StopWaste organization has worked with RCD and other developers to reduce that figure.

StopWaste developed green building guidelines for apartment and new-home construction. New-home guidelines give points for each green element: two for low-emissivity windows, up to four for recycling job-site construction waste and up to 18 for installing solar electric panels. A home needs at least 50 points to be considered green.

"We've been able to standardize the definition," said Ann Ludwig, StopWaste senior project manager. "It's almost like a menu. We give you choices. Once you select enough of the choices, you've created a comprehensive package, a building that is green on a number of different levels."

When Bruce Mast remodeled his 82-year-old Oakland home, he wanted to keep the Craftsman style, increase comfort and be green. His kitchen countertop is made from recycled glass embedded in concrete.

"Very functional, very green, not particularly Craftsman," said Mast, a green home tour participant. He is still trying to find a low-flow, Craftsman-style toilet.

For such homeowners, spending extra money can be worth it to be green.

"You're trying to do something good for the environment," said Levitch, a certified green builder who remodeled his Berkeley home instead of buying another. "If it costs you a little more, you can feel good about it."

Levitch's nine-month remodel added a second story and basement, doubling the size of his 1923 bungalow to 3,000 square feet. A previous kitchen remodel unknowingly added green touches such as skylights and a table made from recycled roof rafters.

Inspired by a client, Levitch made sure this latest remodel not only added space for his wife and two children but also was green.

He has energy-efficient appliances, fluorescent lighting and low-flow shower heads and toilets. The upstairs flooring is bamboo, a fast-growing, renewable grass. The "man cave" basement has radiant heating.

Some items did not cost more, such as the recycled-denim insulation. Others did. The central vacuum system cost $1,500, but it cleans better than a conventional vacuum and has a convenient vacuum pan for sweeping the kitchen, Levitch said. The solar electric system initially cost about $23,000, but was $16,000 after rebates and will pay for itself over its lifecycle.

Levitch did keep a guilty pleasure: an electric hot tub.

"It's an energy hog," he said. "You can't be perfect, but you can try."

Oakland Tribune
401 13th Street
Oakland, California 94612
(510) 208-6330 Switchboard
(510) 293-2709 Online Content
www.oaklandtribune.com