JANUARY 8, 2009 issue
Shelter Highlights
GREEN BUILDING
Story by Sam Calhoun
As every year passes, the High Country advances its image as a green region. Whether it’s green building, green technology or green community initiatives, the High Country is a hotbed for sustainable activity, and the Shelter section serves as a forum for these new ideas and practices. While many green initiatives were spotlighted on the cover of Shelter over the past year, green building stole the show, and two stories shed light on the future of green housing in America.
Green Machine
First NAHB Green Certified Home in High Country Nears Completion
Published September 25, 2008
William McDonough, winner of three U.S. presidential awards for green design and construction, said that his mission will not end until all homes are like trees—that is, when homes actually help the environment. His words ring true to the hundreds of National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) members who are trying to build green homes, as well as to the many NAHB subchapters, such as High Country Home Builders, who are trying to bring green building to the region.
In October 2008, Sam Zimmerman, owner of Sunny Day Homes, Inc. and in partnership with High Country Home Builders and Building Performance Engineering, completed the first home in the High Country certified as a NAHB Green Building under the NAHB National Green Building Program. Located in the Fleetwood Falls neighborhood overlooking the New River outside of Todd, the home is a 2,000 square foot, four-bedroom mountain dwelling owned by a family from Raleigh, and is ranked as a high silver NAHB Green Building.
For the past few years, the NAHB has been drafting green building guidelines. Nationwide, roughly 100,000 homes have been built using those guidelines, but it wasn’t until February 2008 that the NAHB published its official green building guidelines. The NAHB National Green Building Program is based on the NAHB Model Green Home Building Guidelines, and since March builders have had the choice to certify homes based on the guidelines or the National Green Building Standard, the first and only consensus-based green standard for single-family and multifamily homes, developments and residential remodeling approved by the American National Standards Institute. National certification provides buyers with assurance that their home has been inspected by local experts who understand how the seven components of green building work together to create a truly green home in the most cost-effective way. The NAHB’s seven components of green building are energy efficiency, water efficiency, resource efficiency, lot and site development, indoor environmental quality, global impact and homeowner education.
In 2007, High Country Home Builders Association member Kevin Donovan established a Green Building Committee. Recognizing the growing green building movement and the exceptional intellectual resources available to green builders in the High Country—such as Building Performance Engineering—Donavan started to fill in a void with useful information on green building and the region responded. Dozens of contractors and ASU students soon flocked to the committee’s meetings.
Zimmerman took over as chair of the High Country Home Builders Green Building Committee in 2008, and Travis Thompson, who holds a master’s degree from ASU in building science, took over as co-chair. Both former members of the Green Building Council in Asheville, Zimmerman and Thompson decided to build green homes through their respective businesses and have them certified as NAHB Green Buildings. Zimmerman built his NAHB Green Building in 2008, and Thompson is starting his this year.
For more information on the NAHB National Green Building Program, click to www.nahbgreen.org.
Thinking Outside The Box By Using The Box
High Country Green Boxes LLC Unveils New DwellBox Residential Line in Boone
Published October 16, 2008
Sometimes, entrepreneurs have to use the box to think outside the box.
Partners Casey Pond, Ethan Anderson and Jeffrey Scott—collectively known as High Country Green Boxes LLC—did just that in 2008 when they completed the first permanent inter-modal steel building unit (ISBU) residential home in North Carolina. The home, made from two 40-foot wind- and water-resistant shipping containers that are cut in half and stacked in a square, is located near the ASU campus and was completed in October 2008, just 40 days after the partners broke ground.
“And the best part is that when you take out the learning curve, [the construction cost] will be under $100 per square foot,” said Pond.
A local businessperson now lives in the structure that serves as the first project for the residential line of High Country Green Boxes LLC DwellBox. The DwellBox is one of 75 permitted ISBU housing projects in the nation and the first in North Carolina, according to Pond.
ISBU housing is new to the residential world, but the idea of using shipping containers as public and commercial structures has been in practice for many years. In Africa, ISBU structures are used for schools, universities and medical facilities. The United States military uses ISBUs for temporary structures at Fort Bragg, and European travel lodges are starting to use ISBUs for framework.
“Architects, designers, planners and homeowners are finding renewed interest in these inter-modal steel building units as they look for affordable, sustainable housing options for the 21st century,” said American home improvement guru Bob Vila in a 2007 article.
“You see a lot of these [ISBU housing units] on the Internet but it is mainly an academic exercise—just drawings,” said Pond. “But when we found out that no one could find a real example in North Carolina, we jumped on it.”
The partners came up with the DwellBox idea 2 years ago. They felt their idea was solid, but the concept was new to most everyone, from the Town of Boone all the way up to the North Carolina Department of Insurance, the governing body of building codes in North Carolina. Even after the partners decided that the first DwellBox would be small and low risk, it took four months for the partners to get enough information on the structures to even get the permitting process started.
“This was a research and development experiment,” said Anderson, who owns the DwellBox.
Pond, Scott and Anderson are very thankful to the Town of Boone’s Development Services Department for working with them on this project, and said that many Boone employees had helpful suggestions that enhanced the project.
“We’ve proven we can do this in municipalities with stringent building codes,” said Pond.
For more information about building with ISBUs, click to www.fabprefab.com, www.dwellbox.com/dwellblog/ and www.isbu-info.org.
To set up an appointment to take a look at Boone’s DwellBox, call 828-265-9812 or email info@dwellbox.com.
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