28 Jan NAHB.com has a very interesting article on their site talking about the cost-effective green trend. I have been reading and talking about this trend for a while now and its great to see NAHB take on this initiative. A lot of what they outline in the article is very similar to many of past blog posts here on Idea Views.
According to the NAHB article, green home building professionals at the NAHB International Builders stressed the importance of consumer understanding of green upgrades and their values. You can’t sell a consumer something that they don’t understand. Part of this explanation needs to include an understanding of cost-effective sustainable features can be in the long run.
Steve Bertasso, a consultant for sustainable building consultants, believes that the market has reached a tipping point in regards to sustainable development. Here are a few of his quotes from the NAHB.com article.
“It’s moving out of the custom built home market into the realm of high-production homes.”
“This year is going to be a big change in the production environment”
“Consumers are asking questions they didn’t ask two and half years ago and contractors are making better decisions”
The last quote should resonate with you. I know it does with me. I touched on the dangers of ignoring a sustainable initiative. You can read in an older post of mine here. Consumers will no doubt be asking questions about cost efficient home features. Consumers will come to expect these features when looking for a new home. Pretty soon they won’t even be considered features, but standard home features.
It’s predicted that most of the home-building industry isn’t far behind the idea of high-production sustainable building. Many think that this might be the year when it really takes off. Regardless of when everyone else makes the move to more sustainable building, I hope that you’re already building sustainable homes or at least considering it. I stand by my previous predictions. If you ignore sustainability and the green movement in your next project, you’ll be the odd man out!
