I was reading an article in the Evansville Courier & Press entitled, "National homebuilders are still lagging behind with 'green' construction." The article, by Vinnee Tong, notes that although large national homebuilders account for 80% of all homebuilding activity in the country, they are challenged when it comes to incorporating green building practices on a large scale. The problem is that although some of these builders have used more energy-efficient materials or have dabbled in more environmentally-friendly products for the homes, they are having difficulty in getting consumers to pay more for them. While green building should rise to about 10% of home building by 2010, that leaves 90% of home building that will not fall in the green category. The importance of homebuilders jumping on the green bandwagon is significant, since buildings can contribute a great deal to greenhouse gas emissions. This is in light of all of the materials, transportation, operation, etc. Ara Hovnanian of Hovnanian Enterprises, a large homebuilder, notes that buyers are reluctant to fork out the extra money for green building, such as solar panels, even though this builder did the admirable job of building an all-green community in California. The consumers' reaction was not as enthusiastic as Mr. Hovnanian expected.

The irony of the buyers' reaction in my mind is that a green house would probably be more of a cost-saver in the long-run, since if a home is highly energy efficient or even capable of generating its own power via solar panels, utility costs could be cut substantially. This seems to be another case of where you can't fault the builders as much as the buyers; these large-scale builders can't be expected to fork out the money for the more expensive materials and labor if the market just is not there. It's sad when a green community plan doesn't pan out well in California--assuming the construction and the community itself were desirable. What does that say for how such a community would do in a less progressive state? Californians are often the leaders in taking chances to help the environment; I wish more of them would be the impetus for green building.