Green architecture has been a part of the Austin cityscape for many years, from cubist-style condos on the east side to LEED-certified municipal buildings downtown. But now the green scene is reaching out to the suburbs, where a new Austin-based company called Green Builders is putting its (recycled) stake in the ground. The company is building green homes on a large scale, and giving home buyers an opportunity to cut their energy usage dramatically while enjoying the health benefits of environmentally-sensitive construction.

The cost of all this green opulence? About the same as you'd pay for a run-of-the-mill new house. In the past, one of the main drawbacks of green construction has been the added costs of specialized materials and building techniques, but Green Builders set out to build environmentally-sophisticated homes at an affordable price.

"People may or may not buy into the green movement, but they sure like the energy savings," said Clark Wilson, the founder and CEO of Green Builders.

With 2,000 lots over 500 acres, the company's new development in Georgetown Village, just north of Austin, is poised to become one of the biggest green home communities in the U.S. Green Builders also has two smaller developments south of Austin, and Wilson said he knows of no other green home builders operating on the same scale as his company. The Georgetown development is located in a somewhat conservative area, where one might expect home buyers to be skeptical of newfangled green home designs.

The houses have a classic Texas Craft style, range from 1,500-4,000 square feet, and  come with all the modern conveniences one would expect, but with energy costs up to 50 percent lower than in a similar new home. Some of the homes available in Georgetown Village include a 2,000 sq. ft, 4 bed, 2 bath house with a 2-car garage for $238,000, and a two-story 2,800 sq. ft home with a studio above the garage for $316,000. Since the homes are competitively priced for the area, Wilson says business has been steady even in a down market.

"The biggest challenge is surviving the market downturn, but we're taking way more than our share," says Wilson. "We outsold the competition ten to one last month in Georgetown Village, so we're in good shape in getting our share of the now smaller market."
 
Outside Looking In

Green Builders' homes are built from the ground up, and while they all use similar plans for the insulation, plumbing, heating/cooling, and other parts of the infrastructure, home buyers can customize many other parts of the interior and exterior – bamboo floors, recycled carpets, and other products made from sustainable materials. Also on display at the model houses are tables, chairs and other green-living accessories from local suppliers. Soy foam couch, anyone?

Green Builders had the house plans drawn up by several green architect gurus in the Austin area, and after touring a few of the houses you can appreciate how much thought and detail has gone into the construction and design. While many of the green features are in plain sight, some of the most significant parts are behind the scenes.

Looking at the front of the house, the deep (2-foot) overhangs keep the sun from beating on the walls and windows around the house to reduce heat inside. The windows are double-paned, and stretch up on the wall higher than normal to take advantage of the shade provided by the roof overhangs. The sides of the houses are covered with limestone that is mined from local quarries, and Wilson says that all the materials are supplied by local distributors -- yet another way the company is able to keep its costs, and carbon footprint, down.

Sitting right off the front porch is a rain-collection system with a nice aesthetic touch: recycled wine barrels capture rain from the gutters, which can be used to water plants in the yard. Of course, the plants don't require much water, because they are all native to Central Texas, and primarily drought-tolerant varieties.

Below the surface of the plant soil is a combination of granite, loam and mulch to help retain moisture, and below the lawn is a 4-inch chocolate loam topsoil that acts like a sponge. Rain sensors and programmable irrigation controls make the whole watering system extremely efficient, and Wilson estimates that only one-inch of water per week is necessary to keep the lawn happy.

But where are the solar panels? Well, there are none. Since the return on investment for solar panels is still about 5-10 years, Wilson said they aren't included, but the houses are designed with conduits so they can be added in the future.

Air-Tight and Green All Over

One of the first things I noticed inside the model house had nothing at all to do with energy efficiency, but it showed the aesthetic possibilities of using sustainable materials. On the side of the entryway, the wall was covered with big chunks of bark from a Birch tree – functional wall art. Very cool.

Walking around the house, you see splashes of green almost everywhere: walls and cabinets are painted with low-VOC paint and varnishes, and Energy Star appliances, programmable thermostats, and low-flow showerheads and toilets conserve water and electricity. The biggest energy savings comes from the Icynene foam insulation that's sprayed into walls, floors and ceilings to create an air-tight environment. This allows for smaller and more efficient heating and cooling equipment, and since the foam doesn't sag or turn to dust, it's R-value (insulation properties) remains constant over time. A bonus is the foam's sound-proofing qualities, so you can just barely hear the AC running, or cars passing by on the street.

One concern with the Icynene is that it's a petroleum-based foam, and may not seem as green as other insulation products, including foams that use soy or castor oil as a base. However, all insulation types have trade-offs, and Wilson said he made his choice based on the performance, consistency and strength of Icynene. He's also somewhat skeptical of the claims made by bio-insulation products.

"The agricultural products cost more energy to produce, so when you think the food chain through, you haven’t really done anything other than add a marketing schtick by putting a cup of castor oil in your foam," Wilson says. He also noted that off-gassing of the Icynene only happens for a split second after it's applied, so there's no harmful health consequences associated with seepage.

When houses are designed and built from the ground up, builders can locate the heating, cooling, and plumbing equipment for maximum efficiency. Here, the ducts and plumbing lines primarily run up the center of the house, into a control-room closet and foam-insulated attic. The closet has a tankless, on-demand hot water heater, situated near the bathrooms and kitchen to keep plumbing lines as short as possible. And with the foam insulation, the attic was remarkably cool -- only about 10-degrees hotter than the rest of the house – and completely free of dust. Outside, the electric heat pump and AC use Puron, a refrigerant that doesn't damage the ozone.

A Healthier Environment

One part of the Green Builders' equation that's hard to quantify is the health benefits inherent in its home designs. The Icynene foam insulation all but eliminates the dust, allergens and pollutants that seep through traditional insulation such as fiberglass, so the air quality is significantly better than in most homes. Humidity can also be controlled more easily, which eliminates mold and mildew concerns. Termites, ants, and cockroaches are regular house visitors in Central Texas, but the dense foam prevents them from traveling through walls, and virtually none of the materials used in the construction of the house provide attractive food. 

Most of the Green Builders homes have garages built onto the house, but since the walls are sealed with foam, chemicals and other toxins in the air won't seep or "off-gas" into the living quarters. Vents on the side of the garage are used to let fumes escape, and introduce fresh air.

Looking ahead, some of the technologies that Wilson might include in the homes are solar and geothermal products, on a large scale. Wilson says that if he's able to put a community on a shared electrical grid, with solar or geothermal energy providing the juice, the savings could be dramatic. In this scenario, the solar technology might be embedded in shingles and walls and then electricity could be shared throughout the community, and possibly sold back to a utility company.

"You'd be off the grid, de-centralized, generating energy via the technologies out there in a concentrated way, instead of one-off systems," says Wilson.

With all the advantages that green homes offer, all at a reasonable price, one can only wonder why more home builders aren't jumping on the green bandwagon. Wilson, who spent several decades in traditional home construction, offers one explanation.

"It's hard to turn the ship around when you're in a canal, and most of these guys just aren't paying attention to the green movement," he explains. "Some even scoff at it as a trend."

Related articles:
An Insider's Secrets To Building Green
Green Building Codes Hitting Major Cities in '08
Financing Options Remove Green Building Hurdles
Harlem Builds Green Housing on a Budget
How Green Is Your City?

All photos by Christopher Jones