Steve Thomas of "Renovation Nation" discusses the five essentials of building houses green

HARRY SMITH, co-host (Greensburg, Kansas):

It is all about building green in Greensburg as this city rebuilds literally from scratch. To find out what--more what it means to build green, we checked in with Steve Thomas of Discovery's "Renovation Nation," and he took us to Greensburg's brand-new arts center to show us what green really is.

Mr. STEVE THOMAS (Host, "Renovation Nation"): I like to think of green building as five bubbles: energy, workmanship, materials, health and design. Most buildings have to buy their power in the form of electricity, natural gas or oil; this building harvests its own from the sun via these solar panels here, and from the wind via these wind turbines. In fact, it'll generate more power in the course of the year than it can use. It's a mini generating station.

Workmanship is critical in green building. Good workmanship can help a building last 100 years or more, and poor workmanship can insure that it self-destructs in 15 or 20, and here's a great example; this is called a rain screen wall, it gives the siding a little breathing room behind it so that the building can vent itself.

The ideal mix of materials in a green building project are those which last a long time and have minimal environmental impact. The whole outside of this building is covered with recycled wood that was harvested from an old factory building that was dismantled nearby. Saves cutting down trees.

The next bubble is health. You want to build a house that doesn't make you sick. This one's got doors and skylights that give you plenty of ventilation, and they're using nontoxic paints and adhesives throughout.

The final bubble is design, and that's important because at the end of the day, you got to like the building that you've just built. This one is small, so it commanded few resources to build. It's long and low in shape, so it fits in with the prairie. And it's sided so that it doesn't overpower its neighbors here in town. That's how you build green.

SMITH: Steve Thomas is with us live now.

Tell us about this affordable housing they're putting up here and how green this is.

Mr. THOMAS: This builder wanted to build a complex that didn't cost much to maintain or to heat and cool. Started out on the outside here with fiber cement siding. It's prepainted, so you put it up. This is the color. Lasts a long time. Doesn't require much maintenance.

SMITH: There you go.

Mr. THOMAS: Good window package here. Highly insulated windows. All through the whole complex. Notice the thickness of the wall here, it's 2-by-6 construction...

SMITH: Mm-hmm.

Mr. THOMAS: ...with a layer of foam on the outside under the siding and stuffed full of insulation. Doesn't require a lot to heat and cool the building.

SMITH: Now, this guy's building--this is kind of a low to moderate income housing. What was the premium for him to build this kind of green stuff even for housing like this?

Mr. THOMAS: Five to 7 percent...

SMITH: OK.

Mr. THOMAS: ...upcharge from standard building.

SMITH: All right. What do we have going on in the bathroom here?

Mr. THOMAS: Low-flow fixtures.

SMITH: Got that.

Mr. THOMAS: Toilet.

SMITH: Yeah.

Mr. THOMAS: Sink fixture.

SMITH: Yeah.

Mr. THOMAS: All throughout the whole complex, compact florescent lamps.

SMITH: Saves so much on electricity.

Mr. THOMAS: Seventy-five percent of the electricity.

SMITH: And the low-flow even on the water, you--it lowers your heating bill to heat the water, right?

Mr. THOMAS: That's right.

SMITH: Yeah.

Mr. THOMAS: Use less water and lowers the heating bill.

SMITH: Yeah.

Mr. THOMAS: Energy Star appliances, they're standard grade, they're not super fancy...

SMITH: Mm-hmm. Right.

Mr. THOMAS: But you get good quality with low energy consumption, that's the point.

SMITH: Right. There you go.

Mr. THOMAS: And that's on all of these appliances and on the fridge as well.

SMITH: There you go.

Mr. THOMAS: Now, the point is that the renters here will pay $60 a month, approximately, to heat, cool and buy electricity for the building.

SMITH: Wow.

Mr. THOMAS: That's their total energy bill.

SMITH: That's phenomenal.

Mr. THOMAS: So if you're only making--if you're not making a lot of money...

SMITH: Mm-hmm.

Mr. THOMAS: ...then you don't have to pay a lot of money for energy, and that's big.

SMITH: Right. And there are a lot of states that have incentive programs to build green for folks like this, so it really pays off on both ends for the builder and it pays off for the people who end up renting.

Mr. THOMAS: And this guy's doing the right thing.

SMITH: Steve, thanks so much.

Mr. THOMAS: You bet. My pleasure.

SMITH: Really appreciate it.

Let's go across town to Maggie again.

MAGGIE RODRIGUEZ, co-host (Greensburg, Kansas):

Yeah, Harry.