The Webster family's farm, three miles south of Norwalk, is about to be engulfed by residential development. Construction of the Burl Oak subdivision, which will create 32 high-end homes, has already begun, and to the south, Doug Redenius has platted his property into 48 lots and is considering options for developing it.
Susan and Catherine Webster discovered the situation after they moved back to Iowa to take care of their 81-year-old mother. They couldn't prevent the Burl Oak development, but they contacted Redenius about turning his land into a sustainable community. He agreed to consider this option if they had enough people willing to buy the lots, said the Websters.
Working from the barn on their farm, where the sisters are living while their house is rented out, they have about eight people committed to the project so far.
Preliminary ideas include co-op housing, semi-permeable surfaces instead of storm sewers and shared land for agriculture, geothermal heating and composting toilets. "The goal," said Susan Webster, a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker Mid-America Group Realtors who is working on her ecological broker license, "is to encompass as many ecological aspects as economically feasible."
The Websters are among a growing number of Central Iowans who are interested in green residential construction techniques. Although demand for sustainable building is not high enough to drive stores and developers to make these products widely available yet, several Des Moines leaders have begun to make the public more aware of the green building choices they have when constructing or remodeling their homes.
"It's not a fad," said Chaden Halfhill, president of the design/build company Silent Rivers Inc. and co-founder of the Center on Sustainable Communities. "It's a trend.
"Green building has a great deal to do with lifestyle choice. As consumers continue to revaluate how they want to live, good design decisions help them determine which products and features support the homeowner's goals."
Many homeowners are deciding that they can do less damage to the environment, improve their health and lower their energy bills if they use certain green techniques. According to an article in the March/April 2005 edition of Timeline, residential buildings in the U.S. account for two-fifths of total energy use.
"You truly make a bigger impact on things you do within your home than you can by the car you drive," said Lynnae Hentzen, executive director of the COSC. "You drive your car maybe an hour or two a day and then it's off. The home is on 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
Previously environmentalist organizations have focused on the commercial and government sectors, said Hentzen, because it's easier to work with one business rather than several individual homes. The U.S. Green Building Council has had a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System for commercial buildings for a while; now they are in the process of developing a system for residential building.
Sustainable building encompasses three disciplines, energy efficiency, resource conservation and indoor air quality, but it can involve a combination of choices within these categories.
"There's no prescription of what green is," said Halfhill. "There are different certification programs around the country that provide guidelines, but what I've been learning is that the guidelines are just parameters. You've got to look at the whole, each product, each decision. Throughout the process, there's a discernment."
Incorporating green building features can be as easy as using compact fluorescent light bulbs instead of standard ones. More people are using better insulation and windows, sealing their ductwork with mastic to improve furnace efficiency, and using low or no volatile organic compound paints as well. Others are paying more attention to the orientation of their houses or landscaping features.
"Sometimes people are overwhelmed when looking at decisions," said architect Linda Alfson Schemmel, founder of Design Development Inc. and chair of the West Des Moines Plan and Zoning Commission. "I encourage people to balance it. If you made decisions strictly on green building, you might be doing other things detriment."
Demand
A lecture by Sarah Susanka, a leading residential architect and author of the best-selling book "The Not So Big House," on Oct. 4 was the COSC's first big push to raise public awareness for green building.
"I think the market is there," Halfhill said. "It's small and growing."
The majority of people talking about sustainable development are younger, Halfhill said, but the people actually utilizing the principles tend to be older and have more disposable income.
Hubbell Realty Co. is trying to make green communities mainstream with three developments near completion in Central Iowa. The company has commitments for about one-third of its nearly 300 lots so far.
The main feature in most of the houses within these developments is geothermal heating. Hubbell also follows the U.S. government's Energy Star rating system, using features such as better insulation and higher-quality glass, which Rick Tollakson, president and CEO, said is becoming standard in the marketplace. The company's main focus, however, is on the community aspect, using natural systems for storm water management, such as prairie grass.
Tollakson said next year will be a better indicator of how well homes in these communities will sell, especially after Glynn Village in Waukee opens in November and the prairie grass and flowers start to grow.
"You never know if it's worth the investment until it's totally sold," he said. "I think it's pretty good and the direction all developments will go in the future."
Although the houses are similar to most new houses built today, apart from using geothermal heating, Tollakson said that Hubbell will install more green products such as bamboo flooring and recycled carpet if the homeowner requests it.
Yet, "we find a little bit of market resistance to all of that," he said. "If [homeowners] like maple or oak flooring, that's what they want."
Many green building leaders believe that educating consumers on the benefits of green building and the choices they have is key to increasing demand.
"People who are educated to understand what green building is are more apt to do it," said Joel Hirshberg, owner of Green Building Supply in Fairfield. "It saves energy. It's healthier. Who wouldn't want those things?"
Halfhill said the other challenge is "to communicate consistently what green construction is and helping to educate homeowners about the difference. If the consumer is not informed, they might not get what they're paying for. Consumer understanding increases value."
To help homeowners make more informed decisions about sustainable building, the COSC is working on guidelines for green building and is putting together a database of green homes in the area.
Available products
When Hentzen decided to renovate her home three years ago, she wanted to incorporate some sustainable features. But back then, she couldn't find anyone who knew the green building market well in Greater Des Moines, although she knew sustainable building practices were starting to take place nationally.
"The frustrating thing as a homeowner and even as a builder is you want to be able to go into a store and see a display and touch and feel and ask questions about the items you put in your home," Hentzen said, "It's not the same as looking online."
Many products such as cementitious siding, paints without volatile organic compounds and Icynene insulation are becoming more available, Halfhill said. Yet stores will limit green certified products unless the demand increases.
"Many suppliers can access the distribution chain," Halfhill said, "and will carry it on the shelves as demand grows."
Hirshberg has experienced this firsthand. As the demand has increased in the state, Green Building Supply has grown from offering a few products in 1991 to offering hundreds of products today. Hirshberg said the store attracts a few customers from Des Moines each week.
But the challenges of running a green building supply store, said Hirshberg, may discourage some businesses, especially big-box retailers, from offering more green products. The biggest obstacle is the number of questions people ask about the products, including how it is made, who makes it and what is in it.
"It takes a great amount of knowledge to fulfill people's understanding of what's in these things," Hirshberg said. "But when you have a small niche like us, you can focus on it, get better at it, and eventually everyone starts coming there."
Mark Mattiussi, a lumber buyer for the Woodsmith Store in Clive, said his store has started offering some recycled building materials, low-VOC finishes and paint, and wood that's from a sustainable-managed forest, which have done fairly well. Terry Munyon, president of the Iowa Heat Pump Association, said that in the 30 years he's been in the geothermal heating business, he has seen more wholesalers enter the market, which is a sign of increased demand.
Eventually, Hentzen would like to have a showplace at the COSC's headquarters where people could see and demonstrate new products.
Comparing the prices of green certified products to those of standard products is difficult given the range of products available. There may be a small premium for some green-certified products, while others have been driven down by a greater demand. Also some sustainable building practices come at no additional cost, such as how a home builder orients the house.
Planning the home is more important than the products used, said Halfhill, and resource management is as much a factor as products. He also said that many builders and remodelers in Central Iowa are training and certifying themselves in green building practices in preparation for an increased demand for these kinds of homes.
Still, said Halfhill, "It's going to take a few really strong leaders in this industry to go beyond just changing the product line or providing a little extra service to really educate and inform the public."
Leadership
Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie often cites a powerful statistic: If every home in the United States replaced one standard light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, energy consumption would be reduced by the equivalent of 780,000 vehicles a year.
His mission has been to raise awareness for green building in Des Moines by bringing different perspectives to the table and leading by example. Since he formed the Mayor's Task Force on Energy Conservation and Environmental Preservation early this year, the organization has grown from about 15 regular members to almost 50.
"One challenge we have is while there's a circle growing of folks that understand and are interested in this," he said, "we need to figure out how to educated the general population so that all engage."
By the end of this year, Des Moines will become ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability's fourth center in the United States. As part of the program, the city will measure its local greenhouse gas emissions and consider the best ways to reduce it, said Cownie. Some early initiatives include replacing streetlights with more efficient systems and planting 100,000 trees in the city. The city also will help other governments in the Midwest set up programs.
Like Cownie, many leaders in green building recognize the need to get groups with varying perspectives and skill sets to work together.
"'Green building' is more about building relationships than buying a product," Halfhill said, "and the best results come from a team approach focused on the long-term impact of a home on its occupants and its community."
"More people are coming to the table every day and there's a lot of enthusiasm about it right now," said Hentzen, "but it's going to take time, effort and education and steps forward to really get it to move."
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Green Housing & Residential Development Trend is Growing
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On the verge of going green
By Sarah Bzdega
Des Moines Business Record - Des Moines, Iowa, 10/29/06
Straight to the Source
