Purpose
Developing Homes that Give More
The purpose of the Alliance is to develop homes that not only offer more savings on monthly heating and electricity bills, but homes that are also more safe, healthy, durable, comfortable, and environmentally responsible.
Consumers today demand more from their homes. They ask questions about energy efficiency and their home’s affect on the environment, and they want to work with homebuilders who have answers.
Would consumers choose one home over another based on energy efficiency? According to the 2005 Energy Pulse survey, 78% of survey participants say yes. And, in a recent poll by the American Institute of Architects, 90% of registered voters stated that they'd be willing to pay $5,000 more for a house that would use less energy and not harm the environment.
There’s also a new trend in green home construction, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). In 2000, only 2,500 new homes were considered “green,” but by 2004, that number jumped to 14,600. And that number is expected to rise. In 2005, just 2% of the new housing market was considered green, but in 2010, between 40 and 50% of new homes built are expected to be green.
What's driving this trend is a combination of economic, social, and moral influences. A growing number of Americans are frustrated about the U.S.'s dependence on foreign oil. Energy bills are rising, and people are beginning to feel the pinch. There's also much more news about global climate change and the threat it poses to future generations. For these reasons, consumers are more aware of their personal impact on our planet, and feel that building green is the right thing to do.
In February 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its long-awaited report. It represented six years of work from more than 2,500 scientists from 130 countries. Their grave assessment: human activity is almost certainly to blame for the dramatic increase in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere and associated global climate change. “The message of this report is that the time for sitting on the fence is finished,” asserted Robert Watson, chief scientist at World Bank and former chair of IPCC, in the 2007 Time magazine article “Climate Change: Case Closed.” “Now is the time for action.”
The Alliance agrees. The time for talk is over. While we can't solve all the world's problems, we can do our part to usher in a new generation of responsible homebuilding. But only by working together will we discover the next generation of homes – homes that consumers want and the world needs.