EEBA's High Performance Home Blog

As my internship with the Energy and Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA) draws to a close, I have pondered on my position and views on the state of green building today. As someone who was raised building houses and heavily influenced by builders, this internship at EEBA has offered me a more comprehensive perspective on what green building is and how high-performance homes are built. Even through the eyes as a youth today, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that the concept of green building has gained remarkable traction in recent years as our society grapples with the need to address environmental concerns. Intern As an intern at EEBA, my eyes have been opened to the vast wealth of knowledge and resources that promote sustainable building practices. Before interning here, I did not have much experience with anything dealing with sustainability or the environment besides an oceanography trip in college and learning about the effects things like oil spills have on... read more

View original blog on Schneider Electric's website Households have both a direct and indirect impact on the environment. A house takes up physical real estate; it produces heat, noise and – in today’s digital age – a low level of electromagnetic interference from a bevy of connected devices. Its occupants will accumulate resources and produce real physical waste over time – including food packaging and discarded appliances. All accounting for houses to have a major impact thanks to the energy they consume, still only partially derived from clean renewable power. Indeed, buildings are responsible for approximately 40% of EU energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions. We are no less culpable for these emissions just because they are largely invisible and the major impacts happen outside our purview. To keep us focused on making our homes smart and net zero over time, regulations, policies, incentives and standards are there to guide us but also to mitigate the impact of... read more

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Taylor Morrison is one of the nation's largest homebuilders and developers. Taylor Morrison serves a broad range of consumers from coast to coast, including first-time, move-up, and resort-lifestyle homebuyers and renters under their family of brands—including Taylor Morrison, Esplanade, Darling Homes Collection by Taylor Morrison and Yardly. From 2016-2023, Taylor Morrison has been recognized as America's Most Trusted® Builder by Lifestory Research. Recently, Taylor Morrison announced its newest partnership with Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, the home organization experts behind The Home Edit, a part of Hello Sunshine, which is a division of Candle Media, on a new video series, New Home, New Zones, offering home-organization tips that make moving into a new home easier. As part of the multi-faceted partnership, Taylor Morrison will also serve as a homebuilder on The Home Edit's new take on hit home renovation series "Extreme... read more

Greenville, S.C. (July 24, 2023) - Addison Homes, a local home builder which specializes in building healthy, high-performance homes that emphasize increased comfort and durability, better indoor air quality, ultra energy efficiency, and the use of sustainable materials, has received the Green Building award at the annual Bridge Awards gala for the Home Builders Association of Greenville. Founded in 1960 as an affiliate of the National Association of Home Builders, the Home Builders Association of Greenville has grown to more than 650 member firms. The HBA of Greenville recognizes excellence in craftsmanship and professionalism in the home building industry through the Bridge Awards. The award-winning Addison home, the Keowee, features exceptional indoor air quality, water and energy efficiency, and uses a solar photovoltaic shingle system to generate renewable energy to offset a significant portion of the electrical use of the home, achieving an astounding HERS score of 28... read more

The residential construction sector has historically been a late adopter of new technology, so when a major homebuilder decides to take the leap and embrace a new technology, the industry takes notice. Lennar, ranked as the number two homebuilder in the U.S. for 2021 in both total closings and gross revenue according to builderonline.com, embraced a new technology in 2013 when they started incorporating solar into their new construction. "Every home that we put solar on moving forward, is us making a difference for that family, that community and overall, the environment with which we live in." - Greg McGuff, Regional President of Lennar What propelled one leading homebuilder to become an early adopter of photovoltaic systems and how has this helped set them up for long-term success? Learn this and four of the benefits of building with solar in this free study. Access Case Study About Sunnova With over 35 homebuilder partners across the country, Sunnova... read more

The Energy & Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA) Academy has released a new training course for those interested in pursuing a Net Zero Carbon Building Professional Designation. This designation will cover the compelling trends in codes, standards, and voluntary programs that will drive interest and future requirements for accounting of both the operational and embodied carbon of the materials and processes used in building new homes. Participants will learn the essentials of the latest carbon accounting tools and how they can be used to help design homes by selecting materials and methods that optimize the carbon implications of the building over the next 20 to 30 years. Case studies will be reviewed for different climate zones and house styles to demonstrate the impact that cost-effective and low-carbon decisions can have. These lessons could also be applied to major renovation projects as well. The importance behind achieving net zero is obvious. According to the ... read more

CVF homes works with award winning architects to design one of a kind projects. Since inception, CVF homes has distinguished itself repeatedly by specializing in sustainable residential infill development and unique custom homes in San Antonio Texas. Their projects have been successful because they focus on great design, energy, water and material efficient buildings with healthy indoors. CVF homes has two primary goals: 1) To design sustainable projects that integrate the latest technology and the most energy and water efficient systems while minimizing their carbon footprint and 2) To design for humans – providing for practical requirements for how people live today while incorporating the outdoor with the indoor design elements to harmonize modern day living. They are committed to certifying all of their projects by the Zero Energy Ready Home program from the Department of Energy, Build San Antonio Green standards, ENERGY STAR and Indoor airPLUS. Learn More... read more

View original press release on Kantar's website America At Home Study and Kantar provide a deeper look into consumer perceptions on sustainability in their homes and how it impacts personal wellbeing. New York, NY (April 24, 2023) – Kantar, the world’s leading data-driven analytics and brand consulting company, and the America at Home Study released further data exploring the impact that consumers feel sustainability and home design have on their personal wellbeing. The America at Home Study surveyed more than 10,000 Americans across three waves during early, peak, and post-pandemic times to understand the design changes consumers want in their homes and communities. Key findings from the latest wave of this national consumer study reveal connections between sustainability and wellbeing for consumers, while also highlighting opportunities for brands to help meet consumer needs. More than 1/3 of respondents listed ‘climate change’ as one of the top 3 topics they are most... read more

Story by Matt Chapuran, Sustainable Homes Inc. Darrel McMaster comes from a family of homebuilders. By his count, his family has produced eight general contractors since 1945. “All we do is build,” McMaster says. “I kind of followed in line.” Where McMaster has distinguished himself is in the pursuit of building net-zero homes at scale. His company, Sustainable Homes, Inc., boasts on its website, “Building Tomorrow’s Homes Today,” yet this strategy did not originate in a political or ecological ideology. McMaster’s father impressed upon him that the goal for anyone in construction should be to bring down the price of a home, constructing it faster and better. He began to wonder if the most economical home for a buyer wouldn’t be one that ran off the environment, generating its own utilities. Since moving from California — where McMaster’s observation was that the solar power movement was once limited to “some old hippies who lived in the mountains” — to Texas, McMaster has... read more

View original blog on Schneider Electrics website In an unassuming town situated between Los Angeles and San Diego, you’ll find the future of the American neighborhood. I’m not talking about the Jetsons-style sci-fi; I’m talking about California’s first-of-its-kind residential microgrid community. This community is a real-life example of the new energy landscape — or what we at Schneider Electric™ describe as Electricity 4.0 — the convergence of digital intelligence with electricity. Shadow Mountain, in Menifee, California, consists of 219 smart homes. Each home is equipped with its own solar-plus-battery system, which is pretty cool already. But KB Home, a national homebuilder who led the project, took it a step further by deploying a microgrid system. This microgrid connected all 219 homes and their batteries with a shared centralized 2-megawatt (MW) community battery — a first. For each net-zero-ready home, this extra layer of backup power offers an unparalleled level of... read more