Green Houses

Major home builders are becoming more environmental friendly when building new communities.  I’ve noticed this here in the Valley of the Sun.  Did you know Shea Homes (one of the country’s largest home builders) is now building homes which feature better ventilation, conserve more water, and use less lumber?  To boot, they’re throwing in a Toyota Prius with each home purchased in their Peoria Arizona neighborhood Trilogy at Vistancia (30 minutes outside of Phoenix).   In fact, there are Trilogy neighborhoods in California and Washington as well.

Why are they doing this?  In January they began an initiative to reduce the carbon footprint of these homes by 20 - 30%.  They claim that in the next ten years, the implementation of their Shea Green Certified Home program will save 8.5 million gallons of gasoline, and will have the same carbon-reducing effect as planting 1.9 million trees. 

What are the effects of this?   My list of pro’s and con’s:

PROS

• This will lead the way for green homes to be affordable for the middle class
• Because Shea is a large home builder, they’ll buy great environmentally friendly products in bulk
• The contractors they use to construct the homes will get first hand knowledge on how to conserve resources

CONS

• Don’t meet all of the Green Building Council’s certification requirements
• 2,000 more people commuting
• Less urban redevelopment

The bottom line – if one decides to make the commute, isn’t it worth it to pay more for a home that will reduce energy consuption?  Usually energy bills rise, and who knows by how much by the time you pay your home off.