Looking for a more energy-efficient home? You can take your chance on 9 Shutter Latch — along with possibly 17 million other people nationwide.

For the third year, HGTV has built a custom-designed, fully furnished ” green home ” to give away to one lucky winner, and this year’s model is in a ” cottage ” neighborhood in ” The Pinehills ” development in Plymouth. This is the cable channel’s first green home in the Northeast, and is part of a ” you don’t have to be extreme to be green ” prize package valued at almost $800,000.

Potential homeowners can enter from April 16 to June 4 to win the home, and can visit the home starting April 21. ( Thousands visited last year’s HGTV Green Home in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and nearly 17 million vied to win it. ) HGTV will air the ” HGTV Green Home 2010 ” special at 8 p.m. April 18, with repeats through the sweepstakes period. The winner will be ” ambushed ” on June 28.

What’s special about the house? The two-bedroom shingle-style cottage with about 2,100 square feet of living space — a design inspired by classic cottages on Cape Cod and the Islands — was built with green and sustainable materials and ideas throughout. Those include fieldstone from New England farmland; low-water landscaping; permeable pavers; low-flow shower heads and dual-flush toilets; rainwater collection; soy-based spray foam insulation; Energy Star roofing; solar panels; and new Smart Sun efficient windows.

The furnishings, too, are green, with fabrics and flooring from reusable materials, and a dining room table made from repurposed wood by West Barnstable Tables, one of many Cape-area companies involved. Yarosh Associates Architects of Mashpee and MacKenzie Brothers Builders from Marstons Mills have led the project.

The cottage style “was a plan that would show the idea that green could still have character,” says Tony Green, managing partner at Pinehills, who says he was “thrilled” that HGTV picked this development. “There’s all this great technological stuff to make the footprint lighter, but it still looks and feels like a traditional home.”

The award-winning Pinehills has been designed with the natural environment in mind, including preserving 70 percent of land as open space. It offers walking and nature trails among upscale amenities of a swimming pool, golf courses, shops and a fitness center.

Green Home construction photos are on HGTV.com/greenhome and hgtvpro.com, and a 90-second virtual tour debuted on the HGTV Web site this week. Look in next Sunday’s At Home section for more details on the HGTV Green Home, built six miles from Plymouth center.

Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, announced on Thursday that it would cut some 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain by the end of 2015 — the equivalent of removing more than 3.8 million cars from the road for a year.

The company plans to achieve that goal by focusing on popular product categories with the highest embedded carbon—milk, bread, meat, clothing—and by pressing its suppliers to rethink how they source, manufacture, package and transport those goods. Essentially, suppliers are being asked to examine the carbon lifecycle of their products, from the raw materials used in manufacturing all the way through to the recycling phase.

Wal-Mart’s sustainability executives will work with suppliers to help them figure out what measures to take. Any costs related to making products more energy-efficient—redesigning packaging or using a different fertilizer—will be the responsibility of each supplier, not of Wal-Mart.

Jim Stanway, who oversees Wal-Mart’s supplier initiatives involving energy, said in an interview on Thursday that suppliers would be willing to spend money if “it’s an investment where everybody’s sure it makes the supplier more profitable. ”

And while the initiative may be good for the environment, it may also be good for Wal-Mart. Driving costs out of the supply chain could result in savings for Wal-Mart that can be passed along to consumers — enabling the company to uphold its reputation as a destination for rock-bottom prices.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/business/energy-environment/26walmart.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1268186609-n5LWxx39/l5Tqd8O7ptGLg

Green building is definitely part of the solution to get real estate and construction sectors up and going again.

Consider some of the compelling numbers and opportunities the White House has been eye-balling:

There are currently 120 million homes, 5.1 million commercial buildings and legions of government office structures in the U.S. today. These structures account for approximately 40 percent of the nation’s carbon emissions and consume 60 percent of its raw materials, so if even a reasonable percentage of them were retrofitted and became more energy efficient and environmentally friendly, we’d be setting a major and super-Keynesian economic multiplier in motion.

Legions of Good-Paying Green Jobs
A recent report from the International Labor Organization indicates that Investments in improved energy efficiency in buildings could generate an additional 2 to 3.5 million green jobs in Europe and the United States, with the potential much higher in developing countries.

Touching Industries Across the Board
Another reason to think green buildings will serve as a dynamic foundation for a broad-based economic recovery is because they touch a wide area of domestic industry sectors and technologies – including steel, solar, software, semiconductors, building materials, lighting, windows, HVAC and construction.

Green buildings could lead us back to prosperity because the retrofitting revolution will enable the battered and broken down real estate sector to survive and hang in despite the property value across the nation.

Getting the Economy Airborne Again
Retrofitting isn’t going to end the foreclosures; but it is going to offer the macro economy a positive jet that will eventually help it get airborne again.

Silicon Valley and the software industry could gain renewed momentum from the green building stimulus, too. Every eco-structure that is built or retrofit will require digitalized automation services and systems to manage the energy efficiency standards and goals on each floor. And, once green buildings start proliferating, I think we’ll look back and agree that they serve as an early adopter market, a proving ground, for a wide range of green technologies that can be applied in other industry sectors across the economy.

Another thing to consider is that green building stimulus is such an important macro-economic driver because of its impact on the global material science market. The development of a cutting-edge clean cement, for example, will almost certainly spur a fresh round of significant infrastructure projects around the world.

The Role of Government
Finally, green building has the potential to kick-start the struggling economy because it brings together the best of the public and private sectors on both the demand and supply sides. The driving and differentiating factor here is the fact that the government owns such a large percentage of the existing building stock in the form of offices, schools and defense department facilities.

The profound impact that green buildings can have on the economy is already evident in the wake of the stimulus bill, which has quickly brought a host of multinationals into the market looking for efficient lighting companies to acquire.

I’m also encouraged by the findings in Turner Construction Company’s “Green Building Barometer,” which indicates that 75 percent of commercial real estate executives won’t let the credit squeeze or shaky economy get in the way of their green initiatives.

Setting Standards
The real and immediate challenge, however, will be making sure that the recently allocated stimulus monies targeted at green building activity actually get spent – and spent efficiently and effectively. I’m especially impressed by the stimulus standards and scorecard that Smart Grid News has done for smart grid projects, and I think the green building sector should adopt and adapt something similar for best practices and best results.

In the end, though, I have confidence in President Obama because I think he knows that re-constructing the deteriorating economy starts at the ground floor and continues all the way up to the penthouse – and the soon-to-be green skies above and beyond.

It seems like governments and financial institutions alike are doing what they can to get homeowners to think green. From going green rebate programs to new mortgage offerings, financing a home purchase or renovation can be a wonderful opportunity to cash in on your green intentions.

For homeowner Mark Raes, when the time came to replace a 25-year-old furnace in his recently purchased home in Toronto, he decided to get an energy audit done just to check out how energy-efficient the house actually was. In the process he discovered that not only could he get a sizable rebate on the furnace replacement, other upgrades would also qualify.

“So instead of just one thing, we decided to do four all at once,” he says. After investing $9,000 in a furnace, attic insulation, a tankless hot water heater and air conditioner, he ended up qualifying for $3,200 in rebates from the provincial and federal governments. And his energy bills now come in at 30% less than before.

It just goes to show that when home purchasers play their cards right, they can tap into a number of incentives to help them start on a greener path.

Above the rebates, borrowers can even get a bit of help from their lenders. TD Canada Trust’s Green Mortgage, for example, offers a 1% cash-back to be used for Energy Star qualified purchases or any renovations / upgrades that make the home more energy efficient.

“Add that to the government incentives, and that can make a big difference,” says Joan Dal Bianco, vice-president of Real Estate Secured Lending for TD in Toronto. “When every penny counts, $2,000 cash on a $200,000 mortgage can go a long way to taking care of some big ticket item appliances or repairs.”

Despite the fact that green building projects can come at a premium, the price difference can easily be realized within a year through energy savings, Ms. Dal Bianco says. “Our studies have shown that people are now willing to spend more on a green home because of the energy savings they get.”

Looking at green options can also help the resale cause. According to a recent RBC Financial Group-sponsored Ipsos study, more than 75% of homeowners believe that green home improvements will increase the value of their home. “A good energy rating [ on a home ] is definitely becoming an important selling and buying feature for consumers,” says Bernice Dunsby, senior manager, home equity financing for RBC in Toronto.

RBC offers a choice of Energy Saver mortgage and loan products that provide homeowners a partial rebate on a home energy audit, or in some cases, a discounted interest rate. “It all depends on the size and scope of the project you are willing to undertake,” Ms. Dunsby says.

Homeowners should be aware of the fact that home energy audits will soon a must if you want to sell your property. Initiatives such as Ontario’s Green Energy Act will require anyone listing a home to conduct a home energy audit. “The government is doing what it can to make sure that every homeowner can achieve a good rating and is as energy efficient as possible,” says Peter Hwang, president and CEO of EnWise in Toronto.

Dan and Leia Armstrong of Carlisle are looking to build their first home in Upper Dauphin County, and they want it to be as cost -and energy efficient as possible.

The young couple were checking out geothermal heating systems Saturday at the Pennsylvania Home Show at the Farm Show arena in Harrisburg. Mike Armstrong, sales manager for Morrison Inc. of Duncannon, was selling them on the benefits. Costs to heat a 2,000 square-foot home would be around $670 a year with a geothermal system compared to about $3,000 for propane or electric baseboard, he said.

Then there are the incentives. A 30 % federal tax credit. A rebate from PP&L.

A $20,000 geothermal system would come in closer to $14,000, he said, about the cost of a more conventional system.

The Armstrongs were convinced.

“ Not only does it help the environment, it saves the homeowner money too, ” Dan Armstrong said.

Many of the exhibitors at the Home Show advertised “ green ” or “ energy efficient ” on their signs. While some contractors are still suffering with the recession, business is good for green systems like geothermal, Mike Armstrong said.

There has never been a better time to go green, according to John Kautz, owner of Energy Smart of Boiling Springs. His business does energy audits on homes, then adds insulation, new windows, siding, or whatever else the audit shows would help the home become more efficient.

” We’re at a pivotal time … We’re in a position of strength, ” he said, what with electric rates rising as the caps come off, the federal tax credit, PP&L incentives, and President Obama’s proposed “ Homestar ” program, also called “ Cash for Caulkers, ” which would offer instant rebates up to $1,500 for energy efficient upgrades if it passes Congress.

Kautz said it makes more sense for homeowners to make their homes efficient before looking at more exotic upgrades like solar panels or windmills.

Matt Wilson of Secco Home Services of Camp Hill said solar energy is also selling well, though. In addition to the other incentives, Pennsylvania is offering grants of $2.25 a watt for solar systems, which could save homeowners thousands of dollars.

All in all, the costs of installation could be nearly cut in half with all the incentives, he said. Homeowners could recoup their initial costs in seven to ten years.

Doug Snyder of Millersburg said he’s thinking of installing a couple of solar panels on his roof to heat his water.

“With the costs of electricity going up, I’m looking at ways to offset it,” he said. While rising electric rates are the prime motivator, the incentives are nice too, he added, bringing the $7,500 cost closer to $4,000. He got a federal tax break for putting in a new metal roof last year.

Dave Henry of Hanover was traveling throughout the show considering replacement projects for his 25-year-old home – a geothermal heating system, better windows, siding, insulation and appliances. He said the warehouse where he works just replaced its lights at a cost of $80,000, but with the incentives and energy savings, the project will pay for itself in six months.

“Now’s the time to look at this,” he said. “I think this is the future…At least we’re throwing money at something worthwhile down the road.”

Contractor Joseph Dubrovich of J.D. Builders of Dillsburg has a sign reading “I have been green all my life” in capital letters, and has photos of a 2,500 square foot home he built which costs $100 a month in heat, electric and lighting bills. He said he doesn’t mind that others are “jumping on the green bandwagon” because “it establishes me better.”

He said the rising costs of energy are the biggest reason people are going green, more so than the rebates and tax incentives. But there are also less mercenary reasons, according to Dubrovich.

“A lot of people are interested in saving the planet,” he said. “People want to do good things.”

The show runs through March 14 at the Farm Show Complex

source: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/03/visitors_to_pennsylvania_home.html