Featured Home

This month's featured home is the 5-Star Built Green™ Home at Suncadia. This educational showcase, built by CMI Homes is open for free public tours on weekends through July 23 in the Suncadia resort development near Roslyn. The house features a wide array of environmentally friendly products and systems, ranging from geothermal heat, insulated concrete forms and on-demand hot water to cork flooring, recycled glass countertops, and Energy Star® appliances. The home also meets the qualifications of the Energy Star® Home program and is expected to use a small fraction of the energy of a typical new home. For more information on this home's green features, view the case study here.

To see other previously featured virtual tours, click here. Virtual tours created by Northwest Property Imaging.

New Members

Are you a Built Green member and a member of the Master Builders Association? Then your company is designated with a small green tree on the Master Builders Association website as a Built Green member. Your company is also listed on the Built Green website.

Welcome to our newest member companies!

CTA Builds Inc. / CTA Design Builders Inc.
We Design and Build!
(206) 286-1692 in Seattle

Cohousing Resources LLC
Consulting to green sustainable communities
(360) 321-7850 in Clinton

Coldwell Banker Bain Associates
(206) 216-0010 in Seattle

Compo Clay International Holdings Ltd.
Leading the world closer to a toxic-free future!
(852) 219-1333 in Kwun Tong, Hong Kong

Grif’N’Hook Construction
Residential, Commercial and Tenant Improvement
(206) 391-4141 in Seattle

Harrison Construction & Restoration LLC / JSH Homes LLC
(206) 755-4410 in Seattle

Lockhart/Suver LLC
Construction Services
(206) 545-7800 in Seattle

Northwest Home Designing Inc.
Thousands of stock home plans
(253) 584-6309 in Lakewood

Rainier Homes Inc.
Premiere Home Builder in the Issaquah Highlands
(425) 222-6800 in Issaquah

Smith-Laredo Specialty Surfaces
Concrete Tile…Inspired by Nature
(760) 723-7480 in Fallbrook

Sound Quality Construction LLC
(206) 331-2732 in Renton

Events

Visit the Built Green Washington website for green home building courses and events across the state of Washington.

Saturday, June 3 to Sunday, July 23
(open Saturdays and Sundays)
Built Green Home Tours
The Built Green Home at Suncadia is now open for tours through Sunday, July 23. Tours will be held from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays and are free to everyone. This is a great chance to see a beautiful 5-Star Built Green home in person. This custom, lodge-style home features a geothermal ground source heating system, Forest Stewardship Council-certified wooden flooring, recycled copper sinks and more! For more information on the home, visit its website. For directions to the home, click here.

June 1 to July 31
Visions for Seattle's Green Future
Open Space Seattle 2100 presents Visions for Seattle's Green Future, an exhibit featuring inspirations from the Green Futures Charrette held in February of this year. More than 300 civic leaders and community members participated in the charrette, where teams created plans for a comprehensive network of parks, civic spaces, streets, trails, shorelines, and urban forests that will, when implemented, bind neighborhoods to one another, create ecological conduits from the city's ridgelines to its shorelines, boost economic health, and ensure a wealth of green spaces for the coming century. The results of this charrette are exhibited at the Odegaard Library at the University of Washington until July 31.

Call for Entries

2006 Designing and Building with FSC Award
FSC-US and Forest Products Solutions have announced a call for submissions for this second annual award, which recognizes building projects that have furthered responsible forest management through their purchase of FSC-certified wood products. This award is open to owners, architects, interior designers, general contractors, builders, consultants or other professionals. Projects can be any building type, including commercial, institutional, mixed-use or residential. To submit a project, it must have used a significant amount (at least 50 percent of the new wood by cost) of FSC-certified wood and been completed during or since 2003. The deadline for entries is Friday, Sept. 15 by 5 p.m. For more information about the award and to download an application, see the Green Building section of FSC-US' website.

Letter from the Director

New Built Green Advertising on the Mariners Radio Network!

Built Green builder members have for years anticipated a wave of demand for more environmentally friendly homes and have proactively positioned themselves to be prepared for this market shift. The level of national and local media attention and a rapidly growing market awareness of greener living from foods to fuels to homes shows us that this market shift, while only beginning, is upon us. Surveys have reiterated time and time again that sustainability in construction is important to home buyers to the tune of up to 30 percent of the population, or 81 million people. Yet many of the builder members of Built Green raise concerns that consumers are not asking for Built Green in the home buying process.

In an effort to bridge this communication gap, Built Green is proud to announce a new radio advertising campaign with the Mariners Radio Network. This broad scoped campaign will help raise consumer awareness about the Built Green brand and what it stands for. Even better, it will help consumers equate the Built Green name with a home that meets their needs in energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and lower environmental impact.

With so much media attention and awareness in the market, this is the perfect time to focus attention on making the Built Green name recognizable to potential homebuyers. Built Green has stickers, window decals, flyers, logos and yard signs available for your use, so please give us a call if you would like any of these materials. We’d love to assist you in marketing your Built Green homes!

Builders, be prepared; soon consumers will be asking for Built Green by name.

-- Aaron Adelstein

Recommended Reading

Residential Green Building
The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) and McGraw-Hill Construction recently conducted a market survey on residential green building. Two recent articles offer an interesting look at the findings:

$19-38 Billion in Green Home Building Expected in 2010
This article comes from NAHB and is available online here.

Green Building Survey Shows 20 Percent Growth in 2005, 30 Percent in 2006
This article comes from GreenBiz and is available online here.

The complete survey findings have been released and are published in the Residential Green Building edition of McGraw-Hill Construction's series of SmartMarket Reports. You can purchase this in hardcopy or PDF format from McGraw-Hill Construction online.

Puget Sound Energy

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) is proud to co-sponsor the fourth annual Imagine this! Home and Landscape Tour in Bellingham from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m on July 8 and 9. The tour features 11 inspirational homes demonstrating community and environmentally friendly and energy efficient strategies. Look for the Energy Star®-qualified home located on site No. 4 and the Built Green™-certified home featuring energy-efficient lighting and appliances located on site No. 2. In addition to the home tour, be sure to see the Expo with exhibitors of "green lifestyle" productsand services.

Representatives from PSE will also be on hand to provide information on energy-efficiency programs and rebates and explain the relationship between Energy Star-qualified homes and Built Green-certified homes. These are programs that complement each other and are not either/or choices.

The cost is $15 for individuals or $35 for a carpool. For more information visit this website.

Checklist Review Update

Builder Feedback Meeting Scheduled!
Wednesday, July 26, Bellevue
In 2005, a committee was formed with the task of reviewing and updating the Built Green checklist for single-family new construction. The intent has been to update and improve the checklist without changing its overall rigor. A number of changes were made to the existing checklist and a draft of the newly updated checklist was sent out to all Built Green builder members for pilot testing in April. Now that the committee has received your initial feedback and made some adjustments, they invite you to a final feedback meeting at noon on Wednesday, July 26 at the MBA Housing Center at 335 116th Ave. SE in Bellevue. Please attend if you would like to offer some more suggestions, or if you have questions for the review committee. Lunch will be provided with an RSVP. You can sign up for the meeting by contacting Built Green via email or by phone at (425) 460-8238.

After this meeting, final edits will be made to the checklist to incorporate your feedback, whereupon the committee will submit its recommendations to the Executive Committee for final approval and release.

Built Green Job Opening

Built Green Coordinator

Built Green is looking for an organized, motivated, and friendly office assistant to help manage the demands of our fast growing program starting in mid-August. If you're detail-oriented and interested in supporting the growth of green building in King and Snohomish counties, please apply! A Bachelor's or Associates degree is required, as well as previous office experience, and knowledge of green building is a plus. You can download a full job description here. To learn more about the Built Green program, visit our website. This is a full-time position with great benefits.

Please send your cover letter and resume to the Built Green Director at 335 116th Ave SE, Bellevue, WA 98004.

New Certifications

Congratulations to CMI Homes for certifying a 5-Star Built Green home in Suncadia; Harrison Construction & Restoration for certifying 4 homes as 1-Star Built Green in Judkins Park in Seattle; Howland Homes for certifying 12 multi-family homes as 3-Star Built Green in Seattle; JSH Homes LLC for 2 town-homes as 1-Star Built Green in Maple Leaf in Seattle; Nandemoya Inc. for certifying a 3-Star Built Green remodel in Bellevue; Polygon Northwest Company for certifying 24 single-family homes and 96 multi-family homes as 3-Star Built Green at High Point in Seattle, as well as certifying 68 single-family homes and 86 multi-family homes as 3-Star Built Green at Othello Station in Seattle; Quadrant Homes for certifying 114 homes as 3-Star Built Green at Kentlake Highlands in Kent; Sierra Homes, Inc for certifying 6 homes as 3-Star Built Green at Windstone in Renton; Sunshine Construction for certifying a 5-Star Built Green remodel in Seattle; and Tennyson Homes for certifying 2 homes as 3-Star Built Green in Kirkland.

Member News

Congratulations Jackson Remodeling LLC!
Jackson Remodeling LLC, a Queen Anne- and Ballard-based remodeling firm, has been inducted into Remodeling Magazine's prestigious Big50 class of 2006, a national remodeling award. Big50 is somewhat of a misnomer, as it is not based on size or volume, but rather, as Remodeling Magazine puts it, "The Big50 is about the best of the best: remodelers who distinguish themselves by their exceptional business acumen, first-rate customer service and high-quality work. Respected by their peers, recommended by their clients, they stand as models for the industry."

Triad Associates' Rebecca Cushman Awarded by ASCE
The Seattle section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) recently presented the 2005 Outstanding Project Awards. Rebecca Cushman, a project engineer for Triad Associates, was awarded two Excellence in Design Awards in the categories of "Water Resources" and "Site Development" for her work on CamWest Development Inc.'s Shamrock Heights Community in the Renton Highlands. Congratulations, Rebecca!

2006 Green Pages Released
The Northwest Ecobuilding Guild has released its 2006 Green Pages, a directory of ecologically sustainable professional services for both homeowners and building professionals. You can download the PDF version here or see the guild's website for a list of locations where you can pick up a hard copy.

Seattle Green Team's New Website Design
Check out the City of Seattle's newly redesigned website devoted to green building.

Job Opening at Second Use
Second Use Building Materials Inc. seeks a full-time staff person enthusiastic about salvage/re-use of building materials. The position requires lifting 75 lbs. on a regular basis and some work in wet, dirty environments. Skills needed include: good communication, knowledge of salvaged building materials and retail experience. Call (206) 763-6929 for more information, or apply in-person at the Seattle store located at 7953 Second Ave. S.

If you are a member of Built Green and have news you would like to share with our readers, please email your announcement to Built Green.

Classes

Classes listed below are approved workshops for fulfilling the annual Built Green education requirement for certifying projects.

Visit the Built Green Washington website for green home building courses and events across the state of Washington.

Tuesday, July 11, Bellevue
Introduction to Built Green™
This free seminar provides an introduction to the Built Green program from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 11 at the Master Builders Association Housing Center in Bellevue. Learn how to certify a project and use the checklist, how to join, how the program works and other resources. The seminar presents examples of projects and covers how to fill out the Built Green checklist. This orientation is required in order to certify homes as Built Green. To register, contact the MBA University registrar at education@mbaks.com or (425) 451-7920.

Friday, July 14, Seattle
Residential Builders' Perspective on Green Building
Hear from Seattle-area builders and developers about how green building has become part of their business model from noon to 2 p.m. on Friday, July 14 at the Lighting Design Lab, located on 400 E Pine St., # 100 in Seattle. Mark Huppert, principal of Catapult Community Developers, will discuss the business case for residential green building and facilitate a discussion about observations and lessons learned. This lecture is a part of the Buildings in Balance green building lecture series hosted by the Cascadia chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council and the city of Seattle. Registration includes lunch, and the pre-registration cost is $15. For registration details or to register click here.

Friday, July 21, Seattlee
Zero Net Energy and Energy Efficiency Incentives
Learn about the potential for homes that produce as much energy as they consume - even here in the Pacific Northwest! - from noon to 2 p.m. on Friday, July 21 at the Lighting Design Lab, located on 400 E Pine St., # 100 in Seattle. The first step is minimizing the energy load of a home - find out what financial incentives are available to help with this. Then hear about local case studies that show how it's done. This lecture is a part of the Buildings in Balance green building lecture series hosted by the Cascadia chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council and the city of Seattle. Registration includes lunch, and the pre-registration cost is $15. For registration details or to register click here.

Friday, July 28, Seattle
House as a System
This half-day workshop outlines how heat, moisture and ventilation interact in a home, and how smart design and construction practices can produce a home that's durable, healthy and energy efficient. Learn from experts how to make it happen on your projects from 7:30 a.m. to noon on Friday, July 28 at the Lighting Design Lab, located on 400 E Pine St., # 100 in Seattle. This workshop is a part of the Buildings in Balance green building lecture series hosted by the Cascadia chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council and the City of Seattle. Registration includes breakfast, and the pre-registration cost is $30. For registration details or to register click here.

Wednesday, July 26
Rammed Earth Design with builder Meror Krayenhoff
The Northwest Eco-Building Guild will host this workshop with Meror Krayenhoff from Terra Firma Builders Ltd. on from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, July 26 at the Phinney Neighborhood Association, which is located at 6532 Phinney Ave. N in Seattle. For more information, please contact Carrie by email.

Sustainable Task Force

Save the Date! Oct. 7, 2006
Snohomish County Sustainable Development Task Force (SDTF) is teaming up with Solar Washington to present a scattered-site open house tour of Snohomish County Green Building projects. Both commercial and residential sites will be included. The task force will prepare a tour guide tailored to Snohomish County projects, and identify Built Green™, LEED™, NW EcoBuilding Guild and Solar Washington sites. Projects will demonstrate various sustainable building practices, such as water-conserving site features, energy efficient design, materials and systems, recycled-content, durable, and locally made materials. Mark your calendars and watch the Built Green News for updates!

Call for Entries
If your project is located in Snohomish County, and you would like to have your green building project included on the Oct. 7, 2006 green building tour, please email.

Contact Built Green

Master Builders Association
335 - 116th Avenue SE
Bellevue, WA 98004
P: (425) 460-8238
F: (425) 646-5985
builtgreen@mbaks.com
www.builtgreen.net

Master Builders Association Calendar of Events

If you have news items for this newsletter, please send us an email. Click here for Directions to the Master Builders Association.