Efficient homes to gain market share

Green homes are expected to grow to between 29% and 38% of the market by 2016, up from 17% in 2011, according to McGraw-Hill Construction.

By value, this equates to a five-fold increase, growing from $17 billion in 2011 to $87-$114 billion in 2016, based on the five-year forecast for overall residential construction.

According to the study, construction industry professionals report an even steeper increase in green home remodeling; 34% of remodelers expect to be doing mostly green work by 2016, a 150% increase over 2011 activity levels. Many home builders have shifted to the remodeling market due to the drastic drop in new home construction. In fact, 62% of the builders who do both new and remodeling work verified that the economy has increased their renovation work.

"The housing market is critical to the U.S. economy," said Harvey M. Bernstein, VP of Industry Insights and Alliances, McGraw-Hill Construction, "and the results of our study show that despite the drastic downturn in housing starts since 2008, green has grown significantly as a share of activity— indicating that the green market is becoming an important part of our overall economic landscape."

The green home building study, produced by McGraw-Hill Construction in conjunction with the NAHB and Waste Management, is designed to provide key insights into market opportunities, backed by proprietary research surveys and the power of the Dodge database.

The study reveals business benefits afforded by green building, such as a competitive marketing advantage: 46% of builders and remodelers find that "building green" makes it easier to market themselves in a down economy.

 

New tools available to improve water efficiency

The EPA’s WaterSense program has made it easier to modify homes to save water with a mini-makeover plan that offers a way to calculate what a new bathroom might save in terms of water, electricity, and annual utility bills.  It also offer a searchable database of WaterSense products, which are certified to offer superior performance while using about 20 percent less water.

Why save water? Because at least two-thirds of the United States has experienced or is bracing for local, regional, or statewide water shortages. Changes made at home can add up fairly quickly. If one in every 10 American homes had just one full bathroom upgraded with WaterSense-labeled fixtures, the United States could save about 74 billion gallons of water and about $1.6 billion in utility bills in just one year.

In addition to the EPA, building owners can pick up a few tips from the recent Delta Faucet Water-Efficiency Summit, which is described here.

LEED revisions up for third round comment

The US Green Building Council’s third public comment period will be open from March 1 to 20 for the 2012 revisions to the organization’s LEED standards.

 This third draft of the rating system is focused on providing a simple-to-use, technically advanced and more robust system. Once the comment period process concludes, LEED 2012 will be balloted this June and launch in November.

Members of the public can comment on any substantive changes made since the second public comment period, which ran from August 1 through September 14, 2011.  Details here