Habitat Construction has built healthy, energy-efficient homes in Routt County, Colorado since 1977, and pioneered new technologies and energy-efficient construction. With this long-standing background in green building, Habitat has aided the Governor’s Office of Energy Conservation in implementing its Green Builder Program, the creation of Energy Rated Homes of Colorado and the federally sponsored E-Star Homes Program.

Long-Committed to Green Building
While products and systems designed for enhancing sustainability have changed since 1977, Habitat’s commitment to the concept has never wavered. Exercising their scientific approach to building, they have developed a special understanding of “habitat”.

“Green building is also sometimes known as sustainable building or environmental building,” explained Habitat’s founder and President, Michael L. Roberts. “Most simply put, the idea of sustainability, or ecological design, is to ensure that our actions and decisions today do not inhibit the opportunities of future generations. Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use and harvest energy, water, and materials and reducing building impacts on human health and the environment through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and waste disposal—the complete building life cycle.”

“Sustainable means using methods, systems and materials that won’t deplete resources or harm natural cycles. Sustainable housing is housing that is safe, healthy and life enhancing. A sustainable design has positive impacts on the occupants, the builders, and the Earth. It is resource efficient, durable and adaptable to future eventualities. Green building is largely about how well and how long buildings perform: design efficiency and durability,” Roberts concluded.

Benefits to the Homeowner
What does that mean for the homeowner? “We aspire to optimize efficiency, durability, maintenance, air quality, and resulting resale value,” explained Roberts. “All of our homes are tested and certified by the third-party testing agency (Built Green of Colorado) to verify that a wide variety of green features have been properly installed or utilized and are performing just as designed. As awareness of the benefits of green building continues its rapid expansion, increased resale values of green-certified homes will accelerate the momentum of this crucial movement, so essential to reducing the carbon emissions afflicting our planet.”

Habitat’s experience demonstrates that many of the methods employed in green building don’t require more money, just mindfulness and attention early in the design process. In other cases, there are extra costs, but oftentimes the utility and maintenance savings generated by using more efficient products and systems will pay for the increased monthly financing costs of the sustainable upgrades.

When asked about some of the new technologies pioneered by Habitat like frost-protected shallow foundation, cellulose insulation, airtight building envelopes, and guaranteed heating costs, Roberts commented, “A few homes will not save the world. Sustainability is a goal that we’ll reach in incremental steps, but incorporating some of these recommendations into our buildings will make both them and Earth better places to live. And each one of us can and needs to make a difference.”

Call Habitat Construction at 970.879.5371 or visit them online at www.habitatconstruction.net for more information.

Green and Healthy Heat Recovery Ventilation Systems
Science, including Building Science, aims to identify all the variables within a system, control and predict the way in which they interact, and avoid unintended consequences. In the effort to make homes more energy efficient by tightening the envelope and reducing air infiltration, indoor air quality (IAQ) has too often been unconsciously compromised, leading to high levels of indoor air pollution. These high levels result in our increasingly high rates of immune system-related illnesses like allergies, colds, respiratory complications and worse.