Phil Crone
Director of Green Building Programs
HBA Staff
Stimulus, spendulous, porkulous…whatever you want to call it, the recently-passed package includes well over $100 billion in energy efficiency or renewable energy initiatives. Also, I’m still not quite sure what a “green collar” job is. I suppose I have one, but I don’t see President Obama paying my law school loans off anytime soon. The best definition I was able to find for “green collar” job comes from Wikipedia: “green-collar worker is a worker who is employed in the environmental sectors of the economy, or in the agricultural sector. Environmental green-collar workers satisfy the demand for green development. Generally, they implement environmentally conscious design, policy, and technology to improve conservation and sustainability.”
With that definition in mind and, after reading through the stimulus bill, I am convinced that “residential home builder” will soon become a “green collar” job. First of all, buried deep in
the bill is a provision that offers states $3.4 billion in energy assistance grants if they adopt and administer the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). This will undoubtedly fast-track adoption of this recently-published code, which according to the U.S. Department
of Energy, is about 15% more stringent than its 2006 predecessor.
To put this in perspective, Texas is currently required to follow the Texas Building Performance Standards, which are currently aligned to the 2001 Supplement to the 2000 IECC. Several cities are currently updating their codes to the 2006 IECC, which after tweaking by the Texas A&M Energy Systems Lab, is a similar performance benchmark. However, the 15% increase that comes with the new 2009 code will essentially mandate ENERGY STAR’s performance levels.
On a more positive note, the stimulus includes unprecedented amounts of tax credits for the purchase of certain products that will increase energy efficiency. This could finally focus the momentum for green building policy on existing housing, where it belongs. For products such as high-efficiency electric heat pumps, water heaters, windows, and insulation a tax credit covering 30% of the purchase price or up to $1,500 will be available to taxpayers seeking to upgrade their existing homes. This bodes well for remodelers as it improves on the previous caps of 10% or $500. The bottom line is that, according to NAHB, retrofitting existing homes
is four to eight times more carbon and cost efficient than adding further energy-efficiency mandates to new housing.
HBA Past-President T.W. Bailey has said for years that what today we call green building will soon be simply referred to as building. Programs such as Green Built North Texas have done plenty to validate his premonition, now the federal government will do the rest. This does not mean the end of these programs, only that they will have to evolve to stay just far enough ahead to distinguish the homes built above code, but do so in a way that remains beneficial
to builders and marketable to consumers. This will also underscore the need for local programs, who can respond more quickly to these changes than, for example, the new NAHB National Green Building Standard, which is based on the soon to be antiquated 2006 IECC.
