The U.S. Department of Energy presented Housing Innovation Awards to 24 industry leaders from across the nation during the Energy and Environmental Building Alliance’s Excellence in Building Conference in Denver. These winners are “leading the movement to zero energy ready homes providing better places for Americans to live, stronger communities and a more economically and environmentally resilient nation.”
Builder Green Extreme Homes is a winner in the affordable home category for a new construction project on McKinley Street in Garland. This small, established neighborhood was considered a prime location to use as a test case to illustrate how such a project could revitalize a neighborhood. Project partners decided to benefit a local veteran to increase awareness of the need for affordable, energy-efficient housing for veterans.
“Housing Innovation Award winners such as Green Extreme Homes in partnership with the city of Garland are leading a major housing industry transformation to zero energy ready homes. This level of performance is the home of the future because it improves the way Americans live by substantially reducing or eliminating utility bills, ensuring engineered comfort way beyond traditional homes, protecting health with a comprehensive package of indoor air quality measures, and helping maximize the largest investment of a lifetime,” said Sam Rashkin, chief architect at the DOE’s Building Technologies Office.
“The construction of the zero energy ready home served as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization,” said GREAT Homes Manager Mona Woodard. “More than 100 volunteers using donated materials improved the properties surrounding the net zero homes while they were being built.”
Since 2008, the DOE’s Builders Challenge program has recognized hundreds of leading builders for their achievements in energy efficiency—resulting in millions of dollars in energy savings. The DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) — an ambitious successor to the Builders Challenge program — represents a new level of home performance, with rigorous requirements that ensure outstanding energy savings, comfort, health, and durability on the path to zero energy ready homes. A Zero Energy Ready Home is a high performance home that is so energy efficient that a renewable energy system can offset all or most of its annual energy consumption.
Green Extreme Homes Community Development Corporation is taking a leadership role to promote the DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Homes. Green Extreme applies this ZERH criteria in the rehabilitation of homes and new construction, then, along with its partners, provides healthy, energy-efficient homes to the most vulnerable veteran population who are at greatest need for affordable housing options. Green Extreme Homes is committed to providing long-term sustainability in housing options it provides to its clients.
The GREAT Homes program is administered by the city of Garland Housing and Community Services Department and is an innovative approach to re-energizing Garland’s existing housing stock through energy-efficient and aesthetic upgrades while maintaining the architectural integrity of Garland’s more mature neighborhoods. The program offers creative financing terms, which not only benefit the buyers of the homes, but provide a dollar-per-dollar return on investment back to the City.
To learn more about DOE’s program, visit http://energy.gov/eere/buildings/housing-innovation-awards. To take a virtual tour of the DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Homes in your climate region, visit http://energy.gov/eere/buildings/doe-tour-zero.
Information provided by the city of Garland.