Cindy's Blog

Yesterday I spent the entire day in Fredericksburg at an EarthCraft House training. The training itself is primarily for builders, but it was really interesting to see the program from that builders' side. If you know much about green building, or green building programs (or read design magazines like Dwell, etc.) you have probably heard alot about LEED certification and LEED "points" that can be obtained from using different types of products during the course of construction. LEED has historically been a commercial only program, although they are in the process of rolling out the residential program.

The really exciting thing about EarthCraft is that it is a program really very specific to our area (Virginia, and areas to the south- Climate Zone 4). The program actually originated in Atlanta, and is tailored to the mixed-humid climate in which we live. Therefore, it is really designed to help the builder provide an optimally energy efficient and clean house that works here. An EarthCraft house can't be built in Vermont, or New Mexico, but only here. The terrific thing about this is that a home that is great and "green" in Seattle, or Texas, is not necessarily a great, green home in Virginia.

An EarthCraft House, though, is tailored to our climate. The builder works with a technical advisor who works with them throughout the entire process, helping them to create a house that is a minimum of 30% more energy efficient than the standard home.

The downside of this is that I was the only person there from Richmond, and I'm not even a builder- now, I'm hoping that there were some builders from Richmond there on Wednesday, but definitely that there will be some in the future. It's definitely an exciting time, and my hope is that some more builders will step up and start building homes that are EarthCraft or LEED certified, and benefit not only the earth, but the homebuyer- I mean, who wouldn't want to pay 30-50% less for their energy costs???