Sustainability from Dwelling to Development: Making the Connection Between High Performance Homes and Communities

Peter Yost, Building Science Corporation

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Abstract

Using four Building Science Consortium Building America community-scale projects, this paper investigates the nature, strength, and durability of connections between high performance dwellings and developments. There are few inherent or natural links between the two (particularly in the production home setting); the connections must be either imposed (by government entities) or created in the marketplace. Because communities often involve two very distinct players—the developer and the builders—and the project often spans up to 10 years, it is challenging to develop and sustain either an imposed or marketed system with strong and meaningful links between high performance homes and neighborhoods.

An important element in keeping high performance homes and neighborhoods linked is bringing Building America performance criteria into ongoing efforts to develop national green building criteria, at both the building and the development level. Overall, perhaps the most promising approach is to combine certain imposed elements (from the Prairie Crossing and Civano projects) with new quality/value strategies that capture the developer’s, the builder’s, and the homebuyer’s interest. If the developer and the builder have the tools they need to link quality and high performance, the buyer will have no trouble recognizing the value of living in both a home and a community that is lighter on their budget and their environment.