As her family’s new Albemarle County home was being built over the past two years, retired U.S. Air Force Capt. Jennifer Cui sought to incorporate as many environmentally friendly design elements as possible.

Along with her husband and two young children, Cui decided the custom-built house in Earlysville would include bamboo flooring harvested from responsibly managed forests, energy-conscious fluorescent lighting, cement-fiber siding to maximize insulation, carpet manufactured from recycled materials and much more.

“I’m saying, hey, I really care about the environment and its sustainability,” said Cui, who will move from Tennessee when her home is finished next month. “And if I believe in something, I’m going to put my money where my mouth is.”

Cui is part of an emerging market for eco-friendly Charlottesville-area homes - a green trend that has been identified by homebuilders, building supply firms, real estate agents, contractors and architects.

The bulk of Cui’s Earth-friendly building supplies were purchased from Nature Neutral on Greenbrier Drive in Albemarle County.

Founded in 2003, Nature Neutral offers “environmentally preferable” paints, insulation, pressure treated lumber, sustainably harvested wood for flooring and trim, piping products and more. Its clients include Central Virginia builders and homeowners.

“We’re definitely seeing a growth trend,” said Nature Neutral founder John Meggs. “There’s more builder interest. There’s more buyer interest. It’s been positive for us, to say the least.”

Still backing the trend

Though the region’s housing market has cooled after five years of rapidly increasing home prices, members of the local green building industry say they are enjoying more business than ever before.

“Those of us who are involved in the green building niche are seeing a big up tick,” said Doug Lowe, president of Artisan Construction, a Charlottesville general contractor that specializes in environmentally friendly projects. “It doesn’t seem to be letting up. It just keeps getting better and better. I hesitate to say that because I don’t want to ruin it.”

A survey by the Virginia Sustainable Building Network found that homebuilders expected to construct at least 200 Earthcraft-certified energy efficient homes around the state in 2007, many of which are slated for the Charlottesville region.

“The builders are ready for it. The buyers are ready for it,” said Pam Vosburgh of the Arlington-based network. “It’s taking off.”

Large projects

At least three major upcoming development projects in Central Virginia are tapping into the growing demand for green buildings.

The Belvedere project off East Rio Road in Albemarle County will eventually be a community of 700 homes that are certified as energy efficient. The developer, Stonehaus, broke ground on the project May 10.

South of Charlottesville, in North Garden, a 2,300-acre property called Bundoran Farm is being developed into an environmentally friendly community, in which 90 percent of the land will be conserved.

And in Zion Crossroads in Louisa County, a Utah developer is planning a 650,000-square-foot outlet mall, with office, retail and restaurant space. The project will include green building aspects, including solar power, recycled building materials and preservation of the 119-acre site’s existing wetlands.

“More and more, this is becoming the way the industry will do things,” Lowe said. “The market is very receptive to green building and it’s only going to continue.”

Demand may grow even stronger for green building projects later this year, as the Charlottesville City Council is expected to consider a proposal to offer property tax breaks on any new building that reduces its energy consumption by 30 percent below the state’s building code.

Plus, advocates of green building in the Charlottesville area are forming a division of the James River Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. The group, which will meet for the first time Tuesday, will seek to raise awareness among the construction industry, elected officials and the public about the benefits of environmentally friendly and healthy buildings.

Saving energy

Much of the demand behind the green building market is a desire for reduced energy consumption in a time of global warming and for lower utility bills in a time of record high fuel prices.

“People are realizing that the 1 percent to 5 percent more you’re going to spend on a home by going green is made up from the savings they’ll see on their energy bills,” said Alec Cargile, president of Lithic Construction, a Charlottesville homebuilder that incorporates green building elements in all of its projects.

Lithic Construction seeks to use indigenous building materials on its projects, such as Albemarle County timber, Buckingham County slate for roofs and sandstone, granite and soapstone from several Central Virginia quarries. Local materials, Cargile said, are better for the environment as they do not have to travel as far, burning fossil fuels, and because it allows his firm to ensure the materials are from sustainable sources.

“When we started this thing five years ago, the intention was to build green, but you just did what you could,” Cargile said. “Five years later, everything is green. Everybody who is calling seems to want green. That’s changed over the last four years or so.”

Lori Chapman, a real estate agent with Real Estate III and president of the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors, said she is seeing more homebuilders offering environmentally friendly homes.

“I’m hearing about more builders offering green homes as an option - even more than just six months ago,” Chapman said. “I’m not sure if it’s because the builders are seeing this as a demand from buyers or because they want to do the right thing. But I suspect it’s a little of both.”

Jeff Sties, whose Charlottesville architecture firm Sunbiosis specializes in environmentally friendly design, said his company is benefiting from uncertainty over energy prices, concern over global climate change, electricity deregulation and the nation’s reliance on oil from the Middle East.

“My business is up - way up,” Sties said. “The general public is beginning to hear more in the mainstream media that energy efficiency is important to us as a nation. People are uncertain about where their energy is coming from, so they want to reduce their energy footprint.”

Sties said his clients are interested in building homes that are slightly smaller to curb energy consumption and to offset the cost of going green.

Green building means many different things, Sties pointed out. But the bottom line is that an environmentally friendly project is one that minimizes its lasting impact, he said.

“It’s important that people think less about the marketing and more about asking themselves what will happen when they’re gone. Is it reasonable? Will its materials end up in a landfill? Have I done everything I could?” he said.

Information from: www.dailyprogress.com

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 11:11 pm and is filed under Building Construction, General News, Home Improvement. Tags: Air Force, Albemarle County, Alec Cargile, Arlington, Artisan Construction, Buckingham County, building materials, Bundoran Farm, Charlotte, Charlottesville, Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors, Charlottesville City Council, City Council, construction, Demand, Design, Doug Lowe, Earlysville, East Rio Road, electricity, electricity deregulation, energy, energy bills, energy consumption, energy efficiency, energy footprint.â, energy prices, energy-conscious fluorescent lighting, energy-efficient homes, Fluor, friendly design, Granite, Green Building, Green Building Council, indigenous building materials, industry, James River Chapter, Jeff Sties, Jennifer Cui, John Meggs, Lithic Construction, Lori Chapman, Louisa County, mainstream media, media, Middle East, Nature Neutral, North Garden, oil, paint, Pam Vosburgh, products, Public, real estate, real estate agent, real estate agents, Realtors, reduced energy consumption, retail, Stonehaus, Sunbiosis, Tennessee, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Green Building Council, Utah, Virginia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.