The “green” most people usually associate with high-end custom homes is the kind found in the wallet, not in the building materials. But with energy efficiency and greenbuilding practices permeating every area of homebuilding, it’s small wonder luxury homebuilders are jumping on board as well.
Two such builders are Robert Lord Builders in St. Charles, Ill., and Due West Land, based in Steamboat Springs, Colo.
“People say you have to spend green to go green, and it’s kind of true,” says Robert Lord, master builder and president of Robert Lord Builders. So it makes sense that, given current market trends, homeowners with the money to afford unique luxury homes would spring for sustainable materials and energy efficient technologies.
For the builders themselves, however, it’s an overwhelming sense of social responsibility, rather than money or profit, that motivates them to build green. “Builders will change the industry, and I want to make a change that’s right,” says Lord. His message is clear: the commitment to environmentally conscious building practices should be required, not optional.
The Ultimate Green Home
Lord’s latest endeavor has earned several nicknames, from “the Ultimate Green Home” to “the Green Giant.” The 15,000-square-foot, single-family luxury home in St. Charles is priced at $3.9 million, and typifies a seamless blend of high-end luxury and optimal energy efficiency.
What’s most intriguing, however, is that everything that makes “the Green Giant” so green can be found in every home Robert Lord builds. All green features are standard and non-negotiable. “We do not deviate,” he says.
For Lord, the move towards greenbuilding began about two-and-a-half years ago. “At that time there was a lot of uncertainty about going green, particularly in how cost effective it really was. But our philosophy has always been to be innovative and inventive, and to put 110 percent into everything we do,” he notes.
When building a green luxury home, Lord and company employ several energy efficient technologies, the most prominent being geothermal induction, which uses ground-source heat pumps to heat and cool the home. Lord, who became frustrated with different companies’ varying levels of commitment to geothermal, began hiring only specially trained subcontractors to install the systems.
This method of heating and cooling fits in with the EPA’s Energy Star program and could potentially save homeowners up to $7,000 annually versus high-efficiency furnaces, according to Lord. Robert Lord Builders has been an Energy Star partner since 2006, and is one of five builders in Illinois who is 100 percent committed to building Energy Star homes. (For more on Energy Star programs, visit http://www.energystar.gov.)
Homes built by Robert Lord are well insulated. On the exterior of each home, Lord uses DuPont Tyvek ThermaWrap, which can provide energy savings of up to 15 percent. For wall insulation, Lord uses closed-cell foam spray-in insulation sprayed to a thickness of three-and-a-half inches in thickness, resulting in an R-value of almost 24. And though Lord says that he’s not entirely sold on solar panels, he is looking to incorporate solar shingles resembling asphalt into his designs in the future. “We’re always willing to evolve,” he says.
For more information on Robert Lord Builders, call 630-584-9009 or visit http://www.robertlordbuilders.com.
