Think Twice When You Consider Hiring the Low Bidder

Price is not always the best way to choose a contractor or service professional for your important project. See this article by Green Building Elements:

Does Salem's Building Disaster Give LEED a Bad Name?

by Dawn Killough

By Green Building Elements at Green Building Elements

Salem, Oregon is a-buzz with the news that its LEED Certified Courthouse Square building and transit mall have been declared structurally unsound. The ten year old home of Cherriots bus service and hub for local government is being evacuated as we speak. City departments are scrambling to lease office space in other buildings, and quickly move before catastrophic failure of the building threatens them.

Sounds like the introduction to some horror movie, but it is true. The Courthouse Square Building in Salem has been declared structurally unsound and tenants have been given 30 days to move out so the building can be closed. The LEED Certified building has been the crown jewel of the city, until recently when major structural problems were found.

No one knows, or is saying at least, what is causing all the structural issues. Cracked walls and ceilings are the hallmark of what appears to be a buckling post-tensioned concrete slab. The concrete was recently tested and found to not meet the specified strength. Garbage was found in the slab when samples were taken. Claims against the architect and the general contractor have already been settled, but the amounts do not come near the $30 million price tag for the building.

What bothers me most about this situation is that projects like this can give LEED a bad name. Energy efficiency, recycled materials, and green roofs don't do anyone any good unless the building is sound. LEED projects get a lot of press these days, although they are becoming more commonplace, and projects like this can leave the public wondering what designers were thinking. Are they focusing too much attention on being green and not enough on good design?

I've heard it said that green design is good design. It takes an integrated team approach to design a high-efficiency building. Systems have to meld seamlessly together, working with each other, as opposed to jockeying for position and space in the complicated web that is a building. Extreme high-efficiency buildings, such as those attempting LEED Platinum, require a more symbiotic relationship between the building systems, even using each other to further their efficiency.

Unfortunately, this rarely happens in the world of municipal "lowest bid wins" design. Owners want, or require, a high-efficiency building, but are unwilling or unable to pay for the work that is required to design one. I am not saying it is not possible to design a green building in this realm, just that it can be more difficult. We have to learn to look beyond the immediate cost of a design or building, to the life cycle costs of the building system as a whole. Ten years is not a long life for a commercial building, certainly not one that claims to be environmentally friendly.

Announcement of Green for Green

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) today congratulated the Home Builders Association of Delaware and state officials on the creation of a program that offers cash incentives for building homes certified by the NAHB Research Center to the National Green Building Standard.

“This is significant news for home buyers in the First State,” said NAHB Chairman Bob Jones, a home builder and developer in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. “These incentives help bring green homes down to a more competitive price point, and that’s especially important for today’s consumer.”

Delaware Green for Green is a partnership between home builders and the state Department of Natural Resources of Environmental Control. The rebates range from $3,000 for homes built to the Silver level of the standard to $5,000 for Gold and $6,000 for the Emerald level.

The incentives are structured to reflect the progressively more strict requirements of the standard: For example, homes built to the Emerald level are built to be 60 percent more energy efficient than homes built to prevailing building codes.

All homes must be independently verified and then certified by the NAHB Research Center. Additional information and participation requirements are at www.degreen4green.com.

“In partnership with our state’s leaders, Delaware builders continue to lead the nation in using green building technology and building energy-efficient homes,” said HBA president Mark Grahne of Atlantic Homes. “Our members have built more green homes per capita than any other state. Delaware is a small state but we have a big agenda: We want to spur demand for energy-efficient homes, thereby increasing jobs while reducing our carbon footprint. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

NAHB Research Center President Mike Luzier said the Delaware program is another indication of the strength of the National Green Building Standard, the first residential green building rating system to be certified by the American National Standards Institute.

“While Delaware Green for Green applies to new home construction, the standard can also be used to score, verify and certify remodeling projects and residential developments. Because of its flexibility, ease of use, and the strength of the third-party certification, the National Green Building Standard makes sustainable construction accessible to the mainstream home buyer,” Luzier pointed out.

In addition to energy efficiency, the standard scores and rates new homes for resource and water efficiency, indoor environmental quality and lot and site development. A homeowner’s manual is also mandatory under the standard to help ensure the home is maintained and operated to best reap the advantages of the home’s green features.

“I’m very encouraged that other states are looking to this new Delaware program as an excellent example of an incentive program with clear environmental and economic outcomes,” Jones said.

“This is also a case study for what makes a successful public-private partnership: In this case, the state’s home builders, environmental officials, and the third-party NAHB Research Center. Delaware Green for Green is poised to be a home run,” Jones said.

For more information on the program and for home verification, contact Howard Fortunato at LandmarkJCM

Bestfield Homes Captures the 1,000th Green Certified Homes Mark

We are proud to announce that a new Bestfield Homes home in Willowwood, Smyrna has earned the distinction of being the 1,000th new home to be certified green in the Nation under the National Green Building Program!

Congrats to Scott Bradley, Guy Waites, Tony DiEgidio and Dan Martelli and the entire staff for earning this distinction late last week!

Read about it here in Nation's Building News: http://www.nbnnews.com/NBN/issues/2010-05-03/Green+Building/2.html

We are happy to have helped Bestfield earn this distinction, and proud to partner with them and all our green building clients as we continue to provide new home opportunities for more and more buyers of green homes.

Green Building - Most Active Verifiers

The National Association of Homebuilders recently published a list of their most active Green Building Verifiers accross the country.  Joe Gordon of Landmark/JCM was listed with 34 verifications as one of the top verifiers in the country.

This is a proud accomplishment for Joe and Landmark/JCM.  According to recent records, 36 homes have been certified Green by the NAHB Green Building Program in Delaware and Joe has done 34 of them or 94%.  Delaware is far ahead of many States with the number of certified Green homes and Joe is a big part of that.

Congratulations Joe, keep up the good work.

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.

Bestfield Homes Green Home Open House

I was able to join Bestfield Homes yesterday at their Fairways at Odessa National model while they headlined green and their green certified homes. It was a good session and a nice day, probably a dozen or so couples came in to see the homes, take advantage of the free BBQ cookout and water ice Bestfield provided, and take away an appreciation about green homes. Most of the folks appreciated learning about green certified homes and I think some of the sales traffic will likely buy a home from Bestfield. It seems like more and more people are learning about green and the NAHB green building certification program.

Layton Construction Holds Dover Brokers Open

Right after the ERA Harrington Realty sales meeting this morning I attended a realtor brokers open hosted by Layton Construction's realtor JT Takacs also of ERA Harrington Realty. Ted Layton is a new Green Systems client and built a beautiful home in Estates of Wild Quail outside Dover. This spec home is in the final process to receive NAHB Gold certification because it uses ARXX ICF outside walls (which stands for insulated concrete walls) so instead of lumber they are concrete exterior walls sandwiched between insulated foam. Very energy efficient and makes the home very comfortable and quiet. The home relies on renewable energy - it has roof mounted solar panels to generate electricity and uses geo-thermal heating and cooling. Ted builds a nice house and we look forward to this becoming a long term relationship. Besides some pretty good eats it seemed like most of the realtors i saw there were pretty impressed.

ERA Harrington Realty Learns About NAHB Green Building

Today I was privileged to speak at the ERA Harrington sales meeting to tell them about green building, their colleague JT Takacs handles sales for our client Layton Construction. There were 40-50 realtors at this meeting and they listened to me, a financial planner, and a local real estate attorney. I explained that the NAHB green building program encompasses envirornment protection as well as energy and water efficiency and homeowner education, so they are able to thus educate their prospective clients. A few asked me about the NAHB green home certification process for builders. I also explained that green sustainable homes are selling better than non-green homes according to an Oregon marketing study. I further told them about our menu of services including phase 1 environmentals, brownfields redevelopment, wetlands studies and pond management for hoa’s. Nobody fell asleep and I was complimented afterwards so thats a good sign!

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

Green Building Partners

JCM Environmental is unveiling our Green Builders Page on our website. This page will list the number of homes certified by each of our clients and have a link to their website.

We believe that this will add credibility to their certification with potential buyers through this third-party verifier link.

Visit often to track their progress http://jcmenv.com/greenbuilders.htm

Congratulations to all of our Green Builder clients for their accomplishments in this voluntary program.