This article was originally featured on our sister site BUILDER.
What does green mean to the average home buyer? And how can they qualify it?
Manny Gonzalez, principal at KTGY and architect on the Greenbuild KB Home ProjeKt, says that the most digestible way for home buyers to understand green is in cost savings. He advocates for the HERS Index, which is a measurement of a home’s energy efficiency that values the energy features in terms of their efficiency and in terms of the expected cost of utility bills.
Now, that’s something a home buyer will understand. Plus, it will allow them to compare two same-priced homes side by side along with each home’s utility costs to see which is the better long-term purchase.
In this video, Gonzalez offers tips on how to create energy-efficient homes and how to present them to home buyers in a way that they can embrace.
This project and KB Home’s popularity are proof that interest in green is increasing and home buyers have more options from which to choose. In addition, Zion Research’s recent report, “Green Building Materials Market for Framing, Insulation, Roofing, Exterior Siding, Interior Finishing and Other Applications for Public Facilities, Education, Commercial and Industrial, Healthcare, R&D Centers, Residential and Other End-Users—Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, and Forecast, 2014 – 2020,” showed that global sales of green building materials was at $127.5 billion in 2014 and should reach $255 billion in 2020. These numbers show the growth at 12%, and KB Home is leading the charge.
According to Gonzalez, the Greenbuild KB Home ProjeKt and the suppliers for the project collaborated to specify the right mix of green products to lead to cost savings that consumers will realize. KB Home is already sharing these home buyer benefits. In its 2015 Sustainability Report, the company's commitment to sustainability has created incredible impact.
• KB Home and its energy-efficient strategy will allow homeowners to save more than $28 million in utility bills every year.
• Its homes are 70% more efficient than typical existing homes.
• Its WaterSense and Water Smart homes save 1.1 billion gallons of water annually.
• Its solar powered homes produce the same amount of energy as a 10-megawatt solar power plant.
After this forward-thinking project, KB Home is positioned to offer new and improved cost savings to its buyers.
