Builders, city get energy friendly

Monday, Nov. 13, 2006 | 7:34 a.m.

The City of Las Vegas Green Building Program is not a bizarre new policy to make all of the city's buildings the same color.

Nor is it an effort to improve landscaping in and around the city's new housing developments.

Instead, it's a joint effort between the city and the Southern Nevada Homebuilders Association to make new building projects more energy- and ecologically friendly.

"This is one of those things that's just the right thing to do," City Manager Doug Selby said.

The plan seeks to avoid waste by, among other things, encouraging the use of recycled construction materials, energy-efficient appliances and water-efficient landscaping.

Those and other factors figure into a certification formula that will be used to list "green buildings" on the city's Web site. Builders will receive a certificate and a window sticker to authenticate participation in the program.

While recognition from the city and a window sticker might not seem like much of an incentive, builders have been behind the program from the start.

Monica Caruso, a spokeswoman for the Southern Nevada Homebuilders Association, said interest in the program began several years ago, driven by a national effort to move toward energy-conscious building.

Builders began to realize that people not only were willing to pay more for energy-efficient homes, but in fact were seeking them out.

Local home builders association members began discussions with the City Council about implementing a Green Building Program here, and started working with the Green Building Initiative, a nonprofit organization in Portland that promotes green building practices across the country.

"In many cases, we're the initiators and the marketers," said Ward Hubbell, the initiative's executive director. "We go in, help get things started and hang around until about 10 percent of the builders get involved with the program, then it's off to the races."

Energy conservation requires different approaches in different regions, and living in the desert presents special challenges.

For example, while positioning a home to minimize exposure to sunlight during the heat of the day might not be necessary in a cooler climate, it makes a big difference here.

"You become more aware of the human impact of living in the desert, which is inherently hostile to human habitation," Selby said.

The city also will attempt to ensure that all new public buildings are built to Green Building certification standards.

Money needed to meet the standard will come from franchise fees from electric, gas, and solid waste collection providers. Beginning in 2008, 25 percent of any increase in franchise fees, up to $2.5 million in any single year, will be put in a fund for the program.

"This is the wave of the future," Mayor Oscar Goodman said. "We have a responsibility to make moves that are on the ecological cutting edge."

Not everyone will ride the wave, though. Caruso said early estimates suggest that it will cost an extra $10,000 for a home to meet the standard, a price hike some builders find impractical.

But in a region where the average home price is more than $200,000, many builders believe the added cost will not be a deterrent to home buyers.