Article: Unearth the Facts to Buy a Greener Home (HGTV's FrontDoor)

I was emailed the article, "Unearth the Facts to Buy a Greener Home" today from HGTV's new Front Door site. While the article was interesting, finding the new site was the biggest plus. I hadn't run across it before despite being a big HGTV fan. HGTV has done a great job of sharing the wisdom of going green, including having a series of professional-targetted videos on quality green buidling techniques. I'm sure that this site will continue to do right by green and will offer many good articles to come in the future. In the interim, here is a list from the site of their editors favorite current articles (not all of which are green-centric):

Top 10 Editor's Picks

1. Pack Up a Load of Green Moving Tips
2. Major Home Remodel Might Not Pay Off
3. Eco-Friendly Cities: Where to Buy
4. Bathroom Makeover Tips From Designed to Sell
5. Top 10 Reasons to Go Green
6. Where Will The Housing Market Go Next?
7. Go Solar to Save Energy
8. All About Farmhouse Architecture
9. Slide Show: Eco-Friendly Flooring
10. Cool Houses Daily: Earth Week Edition

Celebrate Earth Day: St. Louis Style

Come join Sage and many other green vendors and organizations this Sunday in Forest Park for St. Louis Earth Day, from 11-6 p.m. Last year boasted a vast array of food, music, art, plant sales, fry oil cars, the newest hybrid cars, bamboo shirts and more. It's a great way to see what the green community has been up to the last year.

USAToday Article: Companies give folks solar help to go green

Yesterday's article from USA TODAY, Companies give folks solar help to go green, introduces the exciting possibilities of "Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)". PPAs allow businesses and homeowners to get discounted or even free solar panels in exchange for purchasing the power they produce (often at rates lower than local utilities). PPAs haven't hit St. Louis yet, but with a likely rate increase from our local electricity provider, surely they're not far off.

One thing Sage often recommends to our homeowners is to consider making they're homes "solar ready". It can be less expensive in the long run to plan for solar at a later date that to try and retrofit a system when that day comes.

HGTV: New Studies Confirm Energy Savings in Green Buildings

HGTV Pro posted this article yesterday: New Studies Confirm Energy Savings in Green Buildings. The article included some exciting information released in two new studies about the value of going green...

"Two recently released studies, one by the New Buildings Institute and one by CoStar, have validated what the green building community has known all along: Third-party-certified buildings outperform their conventional counterparts across a wide variety of metrics, including energy savings, occupancy rates, sale price and rental rates."

Exactly. We've been hearing this anecdotally for some time, so it's nice to see studies that back up the value of building green and getting green certification. Both of the studies apply to commercial, but we have no doubts that this will flow through to residential sales.

"Energy Star buildings are selling for an average of $61 per square foot more than their peers, while LEED buildings command a remarkable $171 more per square foot. "

$171 per square foot more in sales prices. If that doesn't encourage you to at least think about building green, what will?

Post Dispatch: Mansion gets Greene energy-efficient makeover

Sage Principal, Mike Greene, was featured in this Sunday's Post Dispatch. Mike and his wife Melissa have done a beautiful job restoring their 98-year old home ... misnamed a mansion in the article, the house is just on the big side. Manse is probably more appropriate..., and the article highlights some of the steps the two have taken to make the house greener.

One green approach overlooked by the author was the home's age. Though a new green home will be significantly more energy efficient, in restoring a near-century old home, Mike is not cosuming a lot of new material -- a very sustainable practice. This concept is a driving factor behind Sage's renovation arm, which continues to grow quickly as homeowners choose to green up their existing homes.

Greening the Heartland Conference here in STL

The USGBC-St. Louis Regional Chapter has completed the program for Greening the Heartland 2008. They have an exciting conference planned, complete with four master speakers, nearly 50 breakout sessions, bus and bike tours and professional training workshops. There are four content tracks: corporate; education; green communities and government. Sessions will include discussions on state-of-the-art energy technologies, new construction innovations, public policy issues, and case histories on how to create more livable communities. We will also have an extensive exposition featuring the latest in sustainable building products and services.

More information on registering for the conference can be found at http://www.greeningtheheartland.org/

Sunday's Lifestyle Section: "St. Louis builders find wisdom in going green"

Many thanks to David Bonetti of the St. Louis Post Dispatch for this weekend's article in the Lifestyle section on Sage's home in Tower Grove South. Also, many thanks to those of you who emailed us about the article! The townhome at 3325 Gustine that is featured in David's article is now complete and ready for sale. 3319 and 3321 are under construction and should be completed around the end of summer. For buyers interested in choosing finishes, now would be the time to contract the home for purchase.

Going Gold

Sage has officially gone Gold again! Both of our homes in Dogtown were verified Gold, the highest level in the HBA program. We are proud to say that each completed Sage home has now reached this level and we look forward to continuing our streak in the future. You can see what steps we took to go gold by visiting our website and checking out the NAHB guidelines and accompanying Sage created spreadsheet.