LED GREEN BUILDING

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When you build green, you will take affordable housing to the next level of performance. You will give owners and residents more comfortable homes that cost less to operate, last longer, and keep occupants healthy. You will keep current with leading building techniques and gain valuable experience with a team approach that improves design and construction. And of course, you will help improve our environment as your buildings become more efficient, use less resources, and reduce their impact. The proof is already out there: a wide range of projects across the country have accomplished these improvements within the cost of conventional building methods. In fact, green building can even lower construction costs and give you a competitive edge in attracting support for your project.

Economics

Developers who gain expertise in high performance techniques rapidly reap rewards. The costs of adopting new methods and materials quickly fall away, giving rise to better buildings with lower maintenance, operations, and insurance costs, and even more consistent rent or mortgage payments.

Your investment in green affordable housing benefits the regional economy by meeting the need for truly low-cost homes. Energy efficiency not only reduces residents' bill but keeps utility rates lower for all customers by reducing demand.
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Environment

Green building offers us tremendous opportunities to save energy, cut greenhouse gas emissions, conserve natural resources, improve air and water quality, and reduce waste. If all buildings in the U.S. met leading green building standards, national energy use and global warming emissions would drop by ten percent. The potential for reducing waste is even greater, with the rate of construction waste recycling at over 70 percent. Green building is also critical when it comes to managing stormwater runoff, a priority in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Specifically, you can make your site work like a forest: absorbing water, nurturing trees that clean our air and cool our city, and give kids a place to safely play and explore the natural world.
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Community

Comfortable, healthy, and safe homes and neighborhoods are at the heart of high performance green building. When you design to make the most of your development, work with community members from day one. Plan to enhance parks and playgrounds and to create safe, well-lit walking routes to transit and businesses where neighbors can get to know one another, exercise regularly and create a neighborhood where residents look out for one another.
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Why do it now?

Green building offers us the chance to benefit everyone: residents, owners, neighbors, local governments, regional businesses, and the local and global environment. You can make these opportunities and benefits a reality even within the budget limitations of an affordable housing project. The average additional cost of building green is approximately two percent higher than that of traditional building and is falling. Many tools are in place to support these market changes, and new policies, financial instruments, and regulatory amendments will soon make building green a mainstream practice in affordable housing. The time to build green is now.

Reduced operating costs

The cost of operating and maintaining a building is three to four times the price of construction. However, efficiency improvements and durable design make your green buildings significantly cheaper to care for than conventional buildings. Utility savings add up for owners and residents--high performance design cuts electricity and water use by approximately 30 percent. Maintenance savings are across the board: hardy landscaping, fewer resident complaints, more durable materials, and no moisture problems. These savings make your building more valuable. In fact, green homes are a hot commodity for renters and buyers. It's no surprise that insurance companies are beginning to offer discounted coverage for high performance buildings. Go to the.

Sustaining the economy

Your commitment to green affordable housing strengthens the economy in everything from the jobs you help provide through green construction to the savings that you help residents achieve through their new and improved homes. Go to the.

Truly affordable housing

Because energy and fuel costs have risen with real estate prices in recent years, building green, efficient homes for working class families goes a long way towards keeping them affordable. When you respond to the need for high performance, low-cost housing near commercial centers, you make it possible for critical municipal workers like police officers, nurses, and teachers to live near their jobs while reducing traffic congestion for everyone.

Powering the economy with efficiency

Your investment in energy efficiency creates almost twice as many jobs as the same amount invested in a gas-fired power plant. Residents benefit from lower utility bills, and those savings translate into consumer spending (in addition to on-time rent or mortgage payments). The approximately 30 percent in overall energy savings achieved by green buildings also brings down the market price of electricity, generating savings for all utility customers in the region. Go to the.

Taking the pressure off public services

Just as reduced electricity demand improves the performance of the power grid and transit-accessible housing eases traffic, water efficient homes achieve savings in treatment and distribution costs. Sewer systems and local rivers and streams also benefit when you reduce water use and control stormwater runoff by keeping more water on site. Since improved indoor air quality reduces respiratory ailments such as asthma, green housing should also ease pressure on the medical system.

Growing green businesses

Each green project creates jobs by growing the market for a range of services and industries, including energy rating, more rigorous building operations and maintenance, green cleaning, and the manufacturing, salvage, and recycling of building materials. Local businesses are taking advantage of this burgeoning market, and green developments are attracting clean technologies firms to cities and regions that value sustainability. By building green, you will not only gain experience in cutting edge design and construction techniques, you will also work in partnership with regional manufacturers and the community, leading you to understand local environmental conditions in ways that will give you an advantage for future projects.