Schell Brothers Unveils New Systems for Home Comfort

Schell Brothers Homebuilders held the EXPOsure event this past Saturday at their Independence Hall in Millsboro.

The event showcased introduction of the new Schellter advanced building science construction program and all it's component parts. It gave the 200-300 attendees a behind-the-walls view of the systems related to advanced framing, insulation, air sealing, tankless water heaters, and much more. We were happy to be there to talk with the attendees about the NGBS green certification program, and of course the Green for Green $3,000 homebuyer rebates.

It was a great day, the prospects were fun to talk with, and the Schell staff were enthusiastically courteous. We look forward to participating next time they hold this event.

Habitat for Humanity New Home Dedication

This morning, Habitat for Humanity held a dedication and key ceremony for 6 new homeowners at Terrace Green in Wilmington.

An audience of 50 or so watched as remarks were made by local and State officials, and then the 6 new homeowners officially received their key to their new home. The site, formerly an auto repair and cab company, has transformed into a home place these individuals will soon call home.

We were happy to be there to participate in the celebration, as these homes are almost completed and are on track to be certified Green under the National Green Building Certification program. Rick Burritt of LandmarkJCM is the Accredited Verifier that has helped these homes become certified.

Congrats to the new homeowners, and also to Habitat for Humanity as they continue their mission of affordable homeownership.

Home Appraisers Starting to Appreciate Green

Looks like the appraisal industry is putting in place guidelines so that appraisers can properly value green homes.

See this article: http://www.nbnnews.com/NBN/issues/2011-05-16/Front+Page/3.html

We are working to get further and emerging details about this. If you have any questions about it call Howard Fortunato at LandmarkJCM at 302-323-9377

Triple Net Zero - Energy, Water & Waste

That is the goal of 2 new planned commercial buildings in Portland and Seattle. Interesting read of sustainable green off the charts!

Take a read:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/05/17/green-wars-two-living-buildings-battle-for-sustainable-supremacy/

Thanks to our engineer Solomon McCloskey in our Dover office for providing this link.

Happy 24th Anniversary LandmarkJCM!

LandmarkJCM is celebrating its 24th Anniversary today.

The Delaware firm was founded on May 18, 1987 by five civil engineers. LandmarkJCM has successfully grown to 58 registered and graduate employees that range from surveyors and civil engineers/designers to environmental scientists, biologists, hydrogeologist, GIS and green building specialists...doing business in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Congratulations to principals Tom Prusak, Bruce Tease, Ted Williams, Joe Charma, Jim McCulley, Mark Parker and Keith Kooker.

Keep up the good work, guys!

Congratulations to our Regal Award Winning Clients!

LandmarkJCM congratulates all of the 2010 Regal Awards winners at the Home Builders Association of Delaware's 19th Annual Regal Awards ceremony on May 6, 2011 at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino!

LandmarkJCM's NGBS Accredited Verifiers are ecstatic to have worked with these builders on their green-built home projects!

Congratulations on your Regal Awards:

Benchmark Builders
Building A Brighter Future, LLC
Echelon Custom Homes
J.S. Hovnanian & Sons *
Insight Homes
LC Homes
Schell Brothers *
Zero Energy

* Congratulations to staffing award winners

LandmarkJCM was happy to win a Regal Award for the Best Associate Logo!

For a listing of all of the winners - including our clients and those we'd like to work with - and their spectacular projects and efforts that won Regal Awards, click: complete listing.

Delaware's First Certified EMERALD Home!

Our friend and client Lance Manlove of Zero Energy Homes just completed the first home in Delaware to receive the highest green home certification possible - Emerald!

The custom home in Lewes, Delaware, certified under the ANSI approved National Green Building Certification program, was awarded Emerald certification for including numerous green features. Not only is this home energy efficient, it received an eye-popping HERS score of 35 (the lower the better, 100 is code, 80 is energy star), it contains a partial green vegetated roof, solar electric and hot water heating panels, a rooftop rainwater collection and distribution system, and many other features. LandmarkJCM's Joe Gordon was the Accredited Verifier of record.

Our congratulations go out to Lance once again, and we are pleased to have partnered with Lance to build the first Certified Emerald home in Delaware!

Delaware Leads the Way in Green Certified Homes!

According to just published statistics by the Research Center of the National Association of Home Builders, Delaware has the largest number of green certified NGBS new homes in the nation, 123, based on a per-capita basis. Although North Carolina, Tennessee and Indiana have more certified homes on an absolute basis, we are proud of our per-capita accomplishment considering we are a small state!

We at LandmarkJCM are pleased to help Delaware be a national leader in green certified new homes. Our experienced staff has verified 90% of all green certified homes in Delaware. If you would like any further details, please call Howard Fortunato at 302-323-9377.

Congratulations to our Friends and Colleagues

The Homebuilder's Association of Delaware (HBADE) celebrated a Leadership and Legacy Ball on Saturday night.

Mark Gandy of Bath, Kitchen and Tile was honored as Associate of the Year.

Shari Hendley of J.S. Hovnanian was given the President's Distinguished Service Award.

Bob Thornton of Silverstock Builders was honored as the Builder of the Year.

Congratulations to them and to all of the Executive Committee Members and Board Members who were sworn in (see list here).

Celebrating Our Green Verifiers Extraordinaire

As the National Green Building Certification gets ever closer to the 2,000th certification in the Nation, once again our Accredited Verifier Joe Gordon of LandmarkJCM has been recognized. Accredited Verifiers serve as in-field ambassadors for the program and the National Green Building Standard. The Research Center recently recognized the national top-volume Verifiers for their service and experience. Joe Gordon is #3 in the entire country!

Congrats Joe! And thanks to all of our clients for placing their trust and confidence in us, allowing us to serve their green building needs. Any other homebuilders wishing to join the crowd can give us a call to see how they can build green.

MORE Good Green Housing News

Green housing is preparing to boom.

See this article:


http://www.builderonline.com/green-building/green-housing-comeback-predicted.aspx?cid=BLDR101021002

Let us help you enter this upcoming booming market. Call or email me for details.

FED Will Crack Down on Green Washing

The Federal Trade Commission has new guidelines out for comment on Green Claims in Advertising.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/10/greenguide.shtm

Builders can be sure they are safe in advertising Green Homes by getting those homes "Certified Green". The National Green Building Standard is the ONLY Green Building Standard in the country. This standard requires third party verification of all green claims and issues a certificate for each home to verify that it meets the requirements of the standard.

There are four levels of green recognized by the Standard (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Emerald), each with a higher level of energy efficiency, resource efficiency, indoor air quality and water conservation.

For more information, contact Howard Fortunato at LandmarkJCM.

Congrats to Craftsmen Developers for Site Certification

Our best goes out to Craftsmen Developers, on earning the first 4-Star Site Certification in Delaware under the National Green Building Certification Program. Our own Joe Gordon (one of the top 5 Verifiers in the Country) was happy to provide the Accredited Verifier services needed in order for Craftsmen to achieve this pinnacle of honor.

If you want to learn more about obtaining certification for your residential site or new homes, please contact Howard Fortunato at 302-323-9377.

Here is Craftsmen's article: http://craftsmendevelopers.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/wharton%E2%80%99s-bluff-in-delaware-is-first-site-on-east-coast-to-earn-nahb-research-centers-4-star-green-land-development-certification-2/

Marketing Green Homes

Nations Building News has a great article on marketing of green homes.

Here is a excerpt:


Included in the mix of possible customers are the true environmentalist, who is sophisticated and will give some thought to the products going into the home and wants to know more about the philosophy and operations of the company; the concerned mother who is worried about poisons in the home; the socially conscious hipster who wants to be seen doing the right thing; the patriot who cares about the bearing on the national interest of such global issues as energy consumption; the self-sufficient survivalist family that home-schools its children; and the technology geek, he said.

View the article here.

For more information on building green, contact Howard Fortunato at LandmarkJCM.

Green Homes Sell Faster!

A recent article from "Nations Building News"

Click here to learn more about selling green homes

LandmarkJCM has been leading the way on Green Building for several years. Since certifying the first Gold home in the Nation, certifying the most homes in Delaware (by far) and being named as one of the most active verifiers in the country.

LandmarkJCM employee, Howard Fortunato, has been president of the Green Building Council of the Homebuilders Association of Delaware for two years and helped them win a Green Building Award presented by the National Association of Homebuilders last month.

Want to sell more home? Build Green! Contact LandmarkJCM today and we will show you how.

Zero Energy Homes First Gold NGBS Standard in DE

Congrats to Lance Manlove at Zero Energy Homes for completing the first Gold Certified home in Delaware under the National Green Building Standard! This program, unveiled in 2009, promotes greater enhancements in energy and water efficiency, indoor air quality and all the other aspects which are contained in the orignal Green Building Guidelines. While the original Guidelines program brought many green certified homes in Delaware, it has been recently replaced with the Standard program.

This beautiful home in Rehoboth Beach includes many green aspects including geothermal heating and cooling, wide use of local/indigenous materials, low flow plumbing fixtures and loads of other green features. What a truly green home!

Congrats again to Lance Manlove and Zero Energy Homes for achieving this First!

LandmarkJCM Captures Two Regals!

We're proud to join our client's successes, as we received two Regal Awards last Friday night!

Best Color Print Ad for an Associate Member!

Best Special Event or Promotion for an Associate Member!

When JCM Environmental and Landmark Engineering joined forces and merged to create a truly full service engineering and environmental company, we rolled out our Breaking New Ground campaign. It captured and won over the judges!

Check us out at http://www.landmarkjcm.com/ whenever we can be of assistance - engineering, surveying, environmental, pond management, green building, and the list continues on, and on...

Howard is a Big Winner

Howard Fortunato, manager of the Green Systems Division at Landmark/JCM http://www.landmarkjcm.com/ was presented with the Associate of the Year award from the Homebuilder's Association of Delaware (HBADE).

Here is a link to the Delaware State News Article: LINK

Howard has been the President of the HBADE Green Building Council for two years and has been instrumental in advancing green residential construction in Delaware.  Howard assisted Silverstock Builders in building the first Gold Certified Home under the NAHB Green Building Guidelines in the Nation and has assisted many builders in building green homes in the State.

Congratulations Howard!

You can reach Howard at howard@jcmenv.com

BRAC Know Before You Go Expo

This past weekend JCM Environmental was again the Signature Sponsor for the Know Before You Go Expo – Part 2 at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey. The Expo was to assist the thousands of transferees in learning more about the Delaware and Maryland area prior to their move prior to September 2011.

JCM Environmental teamed with 8 of our Green Building clients to educate the transferees about the value of buying a green built home. We also educated them on the value of an NAHB green home certification in order to ensure that the home they are buying is really green. The participating builders were: Bestfield Homes, Blenheim Homes, Cornell Homes, Empire Builders, Reybold Development, RC Peoples, Silverstock Builders, and Thompson Homes.

Several JCM Employees attended and manned the Expo booths, along with builder representatives. Everyone we talked to was a transferee and was making the move from New Jersey to either Maryland or Delaware. We estimate at least 500 people attended this Expo and received exposure to green building and our client’s communities.

JCM also made numerous great connections with the Expo host Cecil County Chamber of Commerce staff members, new builders, Realtors, government officials and others at the Expo.

For more information, please contact Howard Fortunato at howard@jcmenv.com or visit http://www.jcmenv.com/ for more information.

Solar Docks – Solar Panel Install Solution

Last week Craig Smith and I had to opportunity to learn more about solar docks, a system to install solar panels on roofs or other open areas without attaching or penetrating the surface. The system is designed and handled by a Wilmington company SolarDock http://www.solardock.com/. I decided to pass the information along as others could learn and possibly benefit from this.

Actually the solar dock is a lightweight frame into which the solar panel is installed. The beauty of it is that it is weighed down and attached to cinder blocks. We saw an application on their client’s roof in Wilmington, mounted onto an automotive repair facility roof without penetrating the roof itself. Pretty cool!

Its also an ideal solution for installing over vacant open ground, or brownfields where you don’t want to penetrate the surface. SolarDock has a schematic design to place fill dirt, geotextile matting and stone above the existing brownfields cap and then placing the solar modules and dock on top.

This could also be applied to vacant land parcels 10-80 acres in size if the landowner does not plan to do anything with the land for several years.

The benefit is being able to generate green energy from otherwise non-productive land.