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

Green Building Video from NAHB

The NAHB has a Green Building Video on youtube explaining how the NAHB Green Building Program works.

For more information contact howard@jcmenv.com

Killens Pond State Park Nature Center Tour

Last Friday I went on a tour of the Killens Pond State Park Nature Center, which is all about green. The tour was arranged by our client homebuilder JS Hovnanian and attended by members of the HBADE Green Building Council.

The Nature Center building was completed last Fall and is LEED certified construction. It captures rainwater off the roof and stores it for irrigation. The facility uses composting toilets so all of the wasterwater is reused – liquids are used for irrigation and solids are composted. Room lighting uses sensors to increase and decrease lighting depending on condtions. They also use renewable geothermal heating and cooling.

During the tour staffers were holding summer camp classes for some youngsters who were learing all about the environment while also playing with face painting, etc!

In addition, our own Mick McLaughlin provided technical assistance last Fall and this Spring when Park officials were setting up their native critter displays. We're happy to play a part of this educational resource which benefits all. It's a wonderful resource and I'm sure they would be happy to give tours to anyone.

Meridian Crossing Open House

Jim, Jacki and Howard assisted for several hours at Reybold’s grand opening open-house at Meridian Crossing in Bear on Saturday. Of particular marketing significance is that we helped them obtain gold certifications from NAHB for Green Building, the first townhomes in Delaware to reach this achievement.

The townhomes are around 2400 square feet which is very spacious and they provide standard solar electric and geo-thermal heating and cooling. The respective subcontractors were there and they estimate these homes will probably have average monthly electric bills of $100. This is a big selling point and although the cost will depend heavily on usage by the homeowner, it attracts buyer’s interest.

Green Open House in Newark

Reybold Homes will have an Open House at Meridian Crossing on Saturday to show off their newly Certified NAHB Green Homes (The first Gold Certified Townhomes in Delaware). JCM Environmental was proud to help them certify these homes and is working with Reybold to get many more certified. JCM Environmental will be on hand to discuss Green Building and answer questions from noon - 3:00.

For more information, visit http://www.meridiancrossing.com/

NAHB Green Features Delaware

The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) Research Center distributed a National Green Building Certification fact sheet at the NAHB Spring Boards. Featured in the fact sheet were quotes from seven (7) members of NAHB, three from Delaware:

• Bob Thornton, CEO Silverstock Builders
• Howard Fortunato, President of HBADE Green Building Council and Branch Manager at JCM Environmental
• Jim McCulley, CEO of JCM Environmental

For a copy of the fact sheet, contact Howard at howard@jcmenv.com

Green Builders Promote at HBA/DE Builder/Realtor Expo 5/14/09

Several of green building homebuilder clients - Benchmark Builders, Bestfield Homes, and J.S. Hovnanian - plus some other planned green builders - took the opportunity today to promote their products and green built homes to Realtors at the Home Builder's Builder-Realtor Expo today at Nobles Pond in Dover. All told there were 15 homebuilders on hand to share their products with about the 80 or so registered Realtors. Besides enjoying a catered lunch of pita wraps, veggies and so forth, this event gave our clients the direct ability to showcase their new home opportunities to Realtors, and to show the Realtors how easy it is to work with them. While I was invited to attend the event by one of our clients, I was able to talk with the traffic at most of our client's "booths" and help promote green building. I think it was the first time for the event but the word about new homes and green homes came through loud and clear.

Kent County and Green Building

Howard Fortunato and Jim McCulley made a green building presentation to the Kent County Delaware code enforcement officials today. Kent County is interested in learning about green building and how they can help encourage builders to build green.

This presentation was arranged by the Green Building Council of the Homebuilders Association of Delaware of which Howard is president. Wayne Bedwell, a local builder was also on hand to help answer any questions that the County officials had.

NAHB Standards Verifier

Congratulations Joe Gordon, Environmental Scientist at JCM Environmental (www.jcmenv.com) on passing his test and being accredited as a verifier for Green Certification of sites and buildings under the NAHB Green Building Standards.

The NAHB Standard (www.nahbgreen.org) is the only National Green Building Standard and it was ANSI approved in late January of this year.

JCM Environmental is proud to be able to verify homes for certification under both the NAHB Guidelines and Standards. JCM has verified ten (10) homes in Delaware in the last year, including the first Gold Home in the Nation, First in Delaware, First in Sussex County, First in Kent County, First in New Castle County and First Model Home in Delaware.

For more information contact Howard Fortunato at (302) 737-9335 X306 or howard@jcmenv.com, Joe Gordon can be reached at joe@jcmenv.com
or www.jcmenv.com

Demand a Green Home

From all of the market research that we have seen, people want Green Homes. They want energy efficiency and indoor air quality and all of the other environmental benefits but they don't always know how to ask for it.



Our builder clients who are building green are seeing the positive response of buyers and yes, they are actually buying. It won't be long before the public knows what to ask for and they will know that they need a home that is Certified Green, not just Green because the builder says so. The NAHB Green Building Program now has ANSI Standards (the only Green Building Standard) and is a third party verified Green Development and Green Building Program.



We intend to get the word out whenever we are among potential homebuyers and our green building clients will benefit. Here is the business card we recently printed for distribution at these events:

More Green Building Press

The Delaware Business Ledger ran a story about the success of Green Homebuilding in Delaware. See the article here:

http://ledgerdelaware.com/articles/2009/02/19/news/doc499dc74eb3f15668529525.txt

Congratulations Silverstock Builders, Benchmark Builders, J.S. Hovnanian and Thompson Homes on your success in Green Building, we were glad to be a part of it!

www.jcmenv.com to learn more.

Benchmark Builders Joins Green!

We are pleased to congratulate Benchmark Builders, homebuilders of the Villages of Eastridge in Clayton Delaware. They recently received Bronze Certification of one of their homes, awarded by the National Association of Homebuilders Green Building Program. They are first "Bronze Green Home" in Kent County, and first Bronze Certified Home in Delaware under the NAHB Green Building Guidelines.

We are proud they have chosen to build green and to add them to our growing list of green-building clients. Having just returned from the NAHB convention last week, its clear that green building is becoming much more dominant across the country and we’re pleased that Benchmark, along with our other clients, are on the leading edge of green building.

International Builder's Show - Sunday

Bob Thornton and I just got back from the NAHB Green Building Subcommittee Meeting which was held at the Convention Center in advance of the show.

Part of the meeting was a powerpoint presentation by Calli Schmidt from the NAHB Public Relations Department. Her presentation was on the positive press coverage that NAHB has gotten about Green Building in the last year.

She showed the News Journal Article about Thompson Homes, she showed a clip from Bob Thornton’s interview on WHYY TV and she showed Benchmark Builders brochure and mentioned that all of the projects were in Delaware. She mentioned that Delaware had a Certified home in each county and was the first State to reach such a milestone. She then mentioned that JCM Environmental had been the verifier for all of the Delaware homes!!! WOW!

After the meeting we talked to some of the NAHB staff and introduced ourselves and they all asked the same question….Where is Howard? JCM and Howard have made quite a name for ourselves with NAHB with regard to Green Building……it is great to be on the cutting edge of this movement.

First Certified Silver Homes in Kent County and Delaware

Now that it's official, we're happy to congratulate JS Hovnanian & Sons, homebuilders of Roesville Estates outside Frederica in Kent County Delaware. They have received Silver Certification of their three model homes, awarded by the National Association of Homebuilders Green Building Program. They are first "Green Home" in Kent County, and first Silver Certified Home in Delaware under the NAHB Green Building Guidelines. We also believe that they are the first in the nation to certify their model homes as green and are waiting for confirmation from NAHB, we do know that they are the first builder in Delaware to certify their model homes as "green".

As always, great to see homebuilders building green AND to see the home buying public embracing green construction. Will it help sales? We think so! Is it mandatory? NO! Does it cost the builder a little more? Probably. But Hovnanian is another example of our growing list of builder clients that are thinking about the environment while they build homes.

First Certified Gold home in New Castle County

Several of us at JCM were pleased to attend a press conference yesterday at which our client Thompson Homes was recognized the County and the local press (http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20081125/NEWS08/811250359/1006/) for building the first Gold Certified home in New County Delaware under the NAHB Green Building Program. The County was especially pleased since they are trying to encourage green building in the County.

The ceremony was held at the home in Crossland, and the homeowner, who has been living in the home for three weeks, is thrilled. We're of course very pleased and honored to have been the Verifiers for Thompson to attain this honor. Needless to say, can't wait for the next one!

It's great to see green thinking and green building catching on.

More National Recognition

Yesterday, the November 2008 edition of Builder Magazine came out and featured a story (on page 60) about a JCM Environmental project, Silver Woods in Bethany Beach, Delaware.

The short article talked about the JCM plan for a nature trail with bird feeding stations as part of the "green" aspects of the development and stated how they are becoming more common.

We are proud to have worked with Silverstock Builders on this exciting project which boasts the first Gold Certified Green Home in the Nation under the NAHB Green Building Guidelines. Silver Woods also boasts the second Gold Certified Green Home in Delaware which was just certified last month.

Follow this link to see the article if you are not a subscriber to "Builder":
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/hanleywood/builder_200811/index.php?startpage=62