The Southface Energy Institute, an Atlanta-based nonprofit, promotes sustainable building practices and, with the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association, manages EarthCraft House, a green building program with guidelines for new homes, renovations and multifamily housing. HousingZone's Erik Gabrielson talks with Newey about EarthCraft House and how it applies to builders and remodelers.

HousingZone: Where is the EarthCraft House program available?

Newey: We don't restrict it to the Atlanta area, but most builders in the program are within 45 miles of downtown. We are happy to work with builders outside of that area. In fact, we have a builder at Callaway Gardens [a resort community in Pine Mountain, Ga.], a builder in Macon and a couple of builders we started working with in Savannah. So we're trying to work with builders throughout the state. We're also trying to take the program to the surrounding states, such as Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina.

HZ: Do you have any time frame on when you're going to roll out the program in surrounding states?

Newey: We're currently looking for pilot projects in those other locations. We have some pilot projects identified in Birmingham [Ala.], Chattanooga [Tenn.], Nashville [Tenn.] and Charleston [S.C.]. Those projects are mostly still on paper. Assuming things go as planned, we'll start some EarthCraft projects within the year in those locations.

HZ: What's the goal of the EarthCraft House program?

Newey: The goal of the program is to reduce the environmental impact of a house. It's difficult to weigh all the different types of environmental impact that a house has. Probably the single biggest environmental impact a house has is the energy it will consume as the homeowners live in it. So reducing energy usage is high on the list.

We also feel that one of the environmental impacts a house has is on the health of the people living inside. Homes that are better for their occupants is something we're striving for as well. There are eight or 10 different things we're hoping to see happen with construction that are starting to happen in Atlanta. That includes better soil erosion control, more energy efficiency, healthier indoor air quality, better management of the resources that go into building homes, and water conservation.

We want to do all of those things in ways that are cost-effective and will allow a builder to offer a better product and in many cases improve their profit margin on what they're building and selling.

HZ: How much does it cost to get EarthCraft-rated?

Newey: There are two costs. There's the cost to change the way you build, and there's a cost for us to work with the builder to inspect and verify the builder's homes. There's a pretty wide range of the cost to implement high-performance, environmental features to a house. Most builders are finding that they spend about 1% or 2% extra on the cost of the home. That money is going toward things like additional air-sealing measures, more duct sealing, better windows, and higher-efficiency heating and cooling equipment.

But a lot of the things we're looking for in the program are either low-cost, no-cost or actually save money. One of the things we promote is construction waste recycling. You can take construction waste like wood and drywall waste, grind it up and use it on the construction site to save on tipping fees. Some builders are saving money by implementing construction waste recycling.

Our cost to work with the builder is very low. A great benefit is that we're doing this program in partnership with energy offices. In Georgia, we're partnered with the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority, which is the Georgia state energy office. We're also partnered with the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division, which is a waste-management and pollution-prevention agency in Georgia. They provide funding that allows us to work with builders for very low prices.

Typically we can do a lot of technical assistance for builders free, and then we charge typically $100 per house to work with a builder. We do an inspection that includes diagnostic testing to measure airtightness and duct tightness.

So we let the builders pay some of the cost, the energy office and other state agencies pay some of the cost, and we have some corporate partners that pay some of the costs of the programs as well. So the cost is pretty small at the end of the day. If a builder has to spend an extra 2% on the cost of the home and the homeowner is saving 30% or 40% on their energy bills, I think that's a victory.

HZ: What type of training does a builder need to participate in the EarthCraft House program?

Newey: We require a one-day EarthCraft House builder training. We teach it through the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association for the Atlanta training, and we do about six of those a year. We also have that training in other cities such as Macon, Savannah and Birmingham. Outside of that, most of the rest of the training is in the field.

We'll meet the builder in the field, walk through the house that they're putting through the EarthCraft House program, and point out to them things that they might have problems with, things we see that might be done better. This is usually air-sealing, air-quality and ductwork issues. And that applies for builders of single-family homes, builders of multifamily homes as well as the renovation program.

HZ: What's the process for rating a new home once it's built?

Newey: When the builder first joins the program, we provide some technical assistance during the construction process, but once they get going, we just do an inspection on every house at the home's completion, usually after permanent power has been established but before the homeowners move in.

We look for anything the builder has indicated that they are doing to meet the EarthCraft House program. There's a worksheet they fill out to indicate what changes they have made to meet EarthCraft House guidelines. Then we run a blower door test, which is a diagnostic test to measure whole-house air infiltration. That test is pretty easy to do. We blow air out of the house, and if we can change the pressure in the house easily, then it's a tight house. If we have to blow a lot of air and don't change the pressure very much, then it's a leaky house. We have a way of comparing different homes, and we have a standard that builders have to meet in order to qualify a home in the program.

We run a similar test in the duct system. We blow air into a duct system and change the pressure in the duct system. If it's a tight duct system, we pressurize it easily, and if it's a leaky duct system, it's very hard to pressurize. We can quantify that, too, and we have a spec for how tight the duct system has to be. It looks for a lot of different things, but those two diagnostic tests end up being a big focus of the inspection because it's easy to specify a certain kind of window or a certain kind of furnace or heat pump, but it's harder to specify an airtight house. You can't go out and buy a product that automatically gives you an airtight house. There's a lot of technique involved.

HZ: Can you describe how the EarthCraft House worksheet for new homes works? It looks like there's a point value attached to each EarthCraft specification on the list, and at the end there's a final point total. Is that correct?

Newey: That's right. You have to earn at least 150 points, and you can get them from any of the 12 categories in the program. We do require that at least 75 points come from the energy-efficiency section. We don't want to have a house that is an EarthCraft house that's wasting energy. That would be a bad fit.

We also give a maximum number of points that you can get in the energy-efficiency section -- 90 points. The reason for that is because we don't want EarthCraft houses to be homes that are just energy-efficient, with no attention given to any other areas. We want energy efficiency to play a key role, but we want builders to do more than just energy-efficiency measures. We want them to look at air-quality issues inside the house, durability issues, material conservation, water issues and that kind of thing.

HZ: And this is to create some balance to the program, correct?

Newey: Right. And there's a lot of flexibility. If you need to gain some points, you don't have to get it from any certain category outside of energy efficiency. You can apply them to areas that you think are most marketable, most interesting or most cost-effective.

HZ: What are some of the most common actions that builders take to increase their score in the EarthCraft program?

Newey: I think there's been a big push on indoor air quality, both because home buyers are becoming more interested in knowing how healthy the inside of their house is going to be, as well as the latest craze about mold. People are worried about mold, so air-quality measures that help manage moisture and help reduce the risk of mold growth have been popular with builders. Resource management in terms of waste management has been pretty good. And use of engineered trusses and engineered wood products. We promote those because they use wood more efficiently. A lot of builders are doing that because they can work that into their house plans pretty easily.

HZ: What kind of feedback have you heard from builders who participate in the program, as far as from a marketing standpoint and to differentiate themselves from the competition?

Newey: It's hard to quantify how EarthCraft House affects sales in a company. We've had some builders who have been in the program a long time. Hedgewood Properties was the first builder to join the program, and they have had a lot of success since doing EarthCraft House. They became the [Professional Builder] Builder of the Year, they've had an increase in their profit margin, and they've really become known as a builder that does a lot of environmental things. So they have certainly benefited from it. They say they have a lot of customers who come to them upon hearing they're an EarthCraft House builder.

We have other builders like Haven Properties who have only been doing this for about a year. They don't know yet how it's going to impact their sales, but they're marketing it very heavily because they believe home buyers are going to be looking for this more and more.

We've recently mailed surveys to 500 EarthCraft house homeowners in order to find out if EarthCraft House influenced their decision to buy their house, if they're comfortable in their home and to get some statistical information about the houses.

All we've really been able to tell so far is that most people who are in the market to buy a house recognize the EarthCraft House logo. They don't necessarily understand what the EarthCraft House program is, but they seem to acknowledge that it's connected with quality builders. That's the biggest connection people make -- that quality builders are building EarthCraft houses.

HZ: Do you know how many builders are participating in the program or how many houses are built to EarthCraft standards?

Newey: There are about 100 builders we're working with, and they range from those who build only two or three homes a year on up. Some builders will participate on only a few homes, some builders will designate certain communities as EarthCraft House communities, and some builders will make every home they build an EarthCraft house. We've had about 1,300 to 1,400 homes meet the program standards and get the final certification. There are a number of other homes that have some or most of the EarthCraft House features but didn't get the final certification.

HZ: What type of training does a remodeler have to complete to participate in the EarthCraft House renovation program?

Newey: It's a different course than builders take, but it's the same format. Remodeling is a totally different creature. In new construction, you're always starting with a patch of dirt, and you're putting in a foundation, you're framing, you're insulating, you're putting in windows. You have a lot of control over the process. Remodelers have to take something that may have been done wrong, or may have been done by different people at different times in different ways, and try to make the pieces work together. So we focus a lot more on strategies for going back into a house and making things work that may have not been done right originally.

HZ: In a lot of ways it seems like remodeling to EarthCraft standards might be more difficult.

Newey: Yes, it can be a challenge. Every house that wants to be included has to have an assessment before the renovation begins, because every house is different. In that assessment, we provide recommendations for what we think the house needs. When the remodeler does their work, they will incorporate some or all of the recommendations we've made. We have a scoring worksheet like the new home worksheet, only it's specific for remodeling jobs. They have to score a certain number of points to have that existing house become an EarthCraft house.

HZ: It seems like it would be hard to rate something like that. For example, if a remodeler does an addition, do you just rate that addition or the entire house?

Newey: That's a good question. We debated how this was going to work for a long time before we implemented the program. EarthCraft House is a whole-house performance program, so the remodeling program does look at the entire house. That doesn't mean that the remodeler has to fix everything wrong with the house. That could be impossible. But what we're looking for is a significant improvement to the house. The project might be to add an addition -- a new wing or second floor of the house -- and they can score a lot of points for doing that addition right. But in order to certify the project, they also have to address some of the things in the previous part of the house.

Sometimes those interact together. We've had cases where the pre-existing house has an old, inefficient furnace providing heat to the old part of the house. So they put an addition on the house, and instead of putting in a small furnace to serve the addition, they put in a new furnace to serve the entire house and the addition. The cost for a large furnace really isn't that much different than the cost for a small furnace. In the end, the homeowner now gets tremendous energy savings, and the cost to make that improvement is often very low. So there's a real benefit to looking at some opportunities to improve the whole house whenever a change like an addition is made.

HZ: Is there a minimum project size to participate in the program?

Newey: No, not exactly. We have a minimum point score of 100 in the renovation worksheet, and that is the minimum for homes that are not getting an addition. As long as you can score 100 points' worth of energy and other improvements to the house, then you can have that house become an EarthCraft house. We've actually had a couple projects where there was no addition or added square footage to the house. They just took their existing house and made a lot of improvements to it, and it became an EarthCraft house. Projects that add square footage have to earn more points than projects that don't add square footage, because we give points both for improving the existing house and more points for putting in an addition correctly.

HZ: What are some of the most common items that remodelers address in the EarthCraft program?

Newey: Comfort is a big one. A lot of people are living in homes that are uncomfortable a lot of the year. If you do a remodeling project right, you can often make that house a lot more comfortable. Indoor air quality also ends up being a big issue in remodeling jobs, especially in in-town Atlanta, where most of the EarthCraft remodeling projects have been done. There are a lot of old houses with wet crawl spaces, with a lot of air leakage between the crawl space and the house. The effect that has on the home's air quality is tremendous. There are a lot of things you can do when you fix a house up in order to improve the air quality, and that's one of the driving forces for remodeling projects.

HZ: What's the cost for the EarthCraft assessment and rating of each project?

Newey: It's a $400 assessment. We run a diagnostic test just like we do on a new home. We explore the home and look for any problems in the crawl space, the attic and all other places in the house, and we make recommendations. If the homeowner and remodeler decide that was useful information but that they're not going to participate, they can do that. If they do participate in the program, there are no further fees. The $400 is paid at the assessment, but that will also cover the follow-up inspection when the project is done, where we verify the things that the remodeler was hoping to achieve have actually been accomplished.

HZ: Do you know how many remodeled homes meet the standard?

Newey: It's a very new program. We only have about 15 or 20 remodeling projects. SawHorse, a very active remodeler in Atlanta, has been an early adopter. They really helped us with developing the program. Anytime we develop a program, we try to get contractor input right from the start to make sure the program is going to be workable. They helped us with getting that feedback, and they became the first remodeler to offer EarthCraft House as a service.

HZ: What can you tell me about EarthCraft's multifamily program?

Newey: That's a new program as well. We have one completed multifamily project, which was an affordable senior housing complex. We had a lot of success with it, so we've started working with about five other multifamily contractors. It's the same concept as new home construction, but we end up providing some additional technical assistance upfront because all of the installation and construction is going to happen very rapidly in a multifamily project. So we provide a lot of information and specifications upfront, and when the project happens, we try to be on the job site at each critical step of the process to help keep things on track.

HZ: Do you have a worksheet for the multifamily program?

Newey: No, we don't have a special worksheet for multifamily projects. We are inviting any multifamily builder that wants to do EarthCraft House to look at the new home worksheet and use that as a guideline for things that they can do in their project, and then meet with us, and we can help them develop specific specifications for their project. Because they're building so many housing units at once, we try to provide a little more attention to that project, so there isn't a general worksheet for multifamily at this point.

HZ: What year did the multifamily go into effect?

Newey: That first project was completed in December 2003. From the point we started working with the contractor to completion was almost two years. We wanted to get that project completely done before we felt comfortable with the way our program was set up. Now we're working with several at once.