Can building green be cost efficient?
Anthony Aebi, president of Greenhill Contracting, is directing his crew where to put the low-flow toilets in two houses nearing completion in a wooded site in the town of Esopus. The buildings are attractive, with capacious front porches, classic gables and plentiful windows, and they are among the handful of residential buildings in New York state that will be certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the highly regarded point system established by the U.S. Green Building Council for energy conserving, environmentally responsible buildings.
Each house faces the sun, with a 15-kilowatt or 10kW photovoltaic system installed on the roof, and each has a geothermal well system with a heat pump for cooling and heating, precluding the need for fossil fuels. Underneath the cement Hardie Board (which resembles wood siding) is an airtight shell constructed of insulated concrete forms, which have a concrete barrier and two layers of insulation. The triple-glazed windows are the most energy efficient you can buy.
The wooded setting – the houses are being sold with ample acreage – and terraced stonework add to the green appeal. The price tag: $1.05 million.
One wonders: Does building green have to cost so much? Is it only the rich who can afford to live green – and is having a miniscule heating bill ironically a luxury to be enjoyed only by the few that can afford the huge upfront investment?
Granted, the size and location of the houses alone put them in the upper bracket. Aebi, who is building the houses on spec, said if he were doing it again, he’d have done them smaller. His new project, in fact, is a green subdivision in New Paltz with houses sized at a more modest 2,400 square feet. Brad Will, principal at Kingston-based Ashokan Architecture, which is designing the Esopus and New Paltz houses, said the smaller houses will have the same features, along with countertops made of recycled newspaper, bamboo and cork floors, and kitchen cabinets made of wheat board. They’ll be in the $500,000 range.
By any measure, most new real estate still isn’t cheap in the Hudson Valley. Still, after figuring in state and federal tax incentives and rebates, the photovoltaic (PV) and geothermal systems of each of the Esopus houses boosts the cost by $100,000.
As the green building movement shifts into the main stream, however, many green architects and builders are challenging themselves to build green affordably. They’re saying it can be done, once you eliminate the expensive PV and geothermal systems. Will, who is an accredited LEED architect – his firm also recently completed dormitories at Bard College in Annandale on Hudson that will be certified LEED – said constructing to a LEED silver or gold rating costs an extra 2 percent to 5 percent above conventional construction. The higher-rated platinum standard is 5 percent to 10 percent more.
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