It's Good to be Green

The locals live in an eco-friendly green-built home. The former Soviet president became so concerned about saving the environment that he founded Green Cross International in 1993 to promote ecological preservation. That same year, Global Green USA was launched as an affiliate, and 25 other affiliates are currently spreading the message around the world.
People are starting to get it. A survey conducted by the National Association of Home Builders with McGraw Hill Construction showed that there was a 20 percent increase in environmentally friendly residential construction nationwide in 2005.
Locally, such communities as Bonita Bay Group’s Verandah in Lee County and WCI’s new Artesia project in southeastern Collier County were and will be green-built. Naples-based Gulfstream Homes built and builds green in its 49-home Veridian project in south Fort Myers and in its sold-out Indigo Lakes and Indigo Preserve communities in Collier County.
The concept has gained ground as contractors understand that the costs are not prohibitive and buyers realize that building green helps the environment while creating healthier homes and heftier bank accounts. Just ask Bill Garrison, a landscape designer who, with his wife, Dianne, and three teenage children, moved into a new home at Indigo Lakes 15 months ago.
“Our living space has increased substantially; we went from 2,900 to 3,600 square feet,” Garrison says. “The utility rates have gone up, but our electric bills have remained about the same as they were in our old house.”
Homebuyers have a wide array of green options to consider. Some, like high-efficiency air conditioners and energy-saving lighting, will save money in the long run. Others, like healthier paints, can contribute to an improvement in the quality of life. Outside, the appropriate landscaping saves water.
The evolution from an unaware to an environmentally conscious buyer has been fostered by a variety of factors, but one of the most effective has been the developers and builders who have educated themselves and promote green options to their clients.
When Gulfstream’s Michael and Steve Peel first decided green was the way for their company to go in 2003, they touted it in their advertising and launched a consumer education effort with brochures and a display room in their design center that showcased green products and literature.
Now, having seen Al Gore’s save-the-planet movie, An Inconvenient Truth, they are even more committed.
“As a Republican, it hurt a little to be so impressed with Gore’s message,” Peel jokes, “but we were so inspired by it that we are arranging to play the movie in all our models, so that we can help send the message.”
Peel said he is also aiming to change the lighting in the company’s models to compact fluorescent bulbs that come in a variety of styles and require less energy than conventional bulbs. He estimates it cost only about $100 to make the conversion in his own home.
The brothers deliver a package of green products as part of their standard offerings, rather than as options. Such features as high-efficiency air conditioners and healthier paint and carpeting are included in the price, but big-ticket items, such as energy-efficient Icynene foam insulation, are left to the customer’s discretion.
The additional cost of the basic green package is minimal—about two to three percent, Peel estimates. “We saw it in our own new home,” he says. “There was no new-home smell when we moved in, and my son, who has allergies, was much more comfortable than when we moved into our last home.”

Using recycled drywall and renewable materials is good for the environment, and paints and carpeting made with fewer volatile organic compounds (VOC) are also healthy choices, he adds. As a bonus, energy-efficient products can save homeowners money in the long run.
“Every home we build will have enough green building features to be certified by the Florida Green Building Coalition,” Peel says.
Jennifer Languell, CEO of Naples-based Trifecta Building Solutions and director of Florida Gulf Coast University’s green building program, says she felt she was a lone voice when she first started advocating the concept to the local building industry in 2001. Now she is encouraged by the numbers of builders who attend her talks and the results of a recent NAHB study that anticipates 50 percent of builders will be offering green options this year or next.
Some of those include WCI Communities, building Venetian Golf and River Club in Venice (the Casa Verde model was named the greenest home in Florida by the Florida Green Building Coalition), and Lakewood Ranch developers, who furnish a room in its information center at its Sarasota/Bradenton property with green options.
Bonita Bay Group’s environmental manager, Kim Fikoski, says that when the company took over TwinEagles in northeastern Collier County, participating builders attended a green-building education program designed by the University of Florida. At the company’s Verandah project in Fort Myers, models and latest-phase single-family homes include green building components. Bonita Bay itself was an early proponent of environmental consciousness through its encouragement of xeriscape landscaping and water conservation.

The experts agree that green building features will be an attractive selling tool for resale because they give owners the satisfaction that they are helping preserve natural resources and appeal to their desires to live healthy and save money.
“There was a time when most folks said they wouldn’t spend $12 on an energy-efficient light bulb,” says Brenda Talbert, Collier Building Industry Association’s executive vice president. “Now, they’d rather spend $12 on a light bulb than $200 on their electric bill.”
While homeowners with large assets can afford green options, the less affluent might be more inclined to adopt green ways if incentives were available. The state is now offering the Solar Energy Systems Incentives Act signed by former Gov. Jeb Bush in June 2006 and effective until June 30, 2010. It will provide rebates to customers buying certain solar-energy products for home and business, and also includes a matching grant package of $10 million for the research, development and commercialization of renewable energy technologies (visit www.dep.state.fl.us/energy/energyact/solar.htm).