Attend the 2008 Built Green Universities:

Durango – April 17th - 18th
Denver – April 23rd - 24th

Sign up now for this day and half seminar on the Built Green® approach to energy- and resource-efficient home building.  You'll receive essential information on cost-effective methods to improve home performance, reduce callbacks, and hold your market edge. Learn:

• How (and why) to comply with the 2008 Built Green® Checklist.
• How building science and the systems approach results in better performing homes
• How and why to go beyond the minimum in energy efficiency
• How all of this will reduce common problems and expensive callbacks
• Field demonstration, location to be determined

Speakers/Demonstrations:
Justin Wilson, Building Performance Solutions
Traci D'Alessio, Built Green Colorado

To register for the Durango BGU, click here: https://www.energymeetings.com/calendar/register.asp?CalendarID=10610

To register for the Denver BGU, click here: https://www.energymeetings.com/calendar/register.asp?CalendarID=10611

Sign-up to sponsor the 2008 Built Green Universities
Deadline for sponsorship is February 27th.

These events consistently fill up, and we are anticipating up to 100 attendees for both events this year.  Since attending the Built Green University is a requirement for our builders, we see almost all of them come through this class in the course of a year or two, which gives you direct access to those who are most interested in your products and services.

Please click here for the Durango Built Green University Sponsorship flyer
Please click here for the Denver Built Green University Sponsorship flyer

Built Green and Cherry Creek Marketing Group are excited to announce the pending launch of the newly redesigned BuiltGreen.org website! Look for the new site to go live in early March 2008.

Working together, Built Green and CCMG have created a website with user-friendly navigation, an engaging design and up-to-date information. The new site design strives to get users to the information they are seeking quickly and efficiently, usually with only 1-2 clicks. In addition, the site is built to be search-engine friendly, so the Built Green message can get out to even more builders, consumers and anyone else interested in how green building practices can have a positive effect on our environment.

The Home Builders Association of Metro Denver is excited to announce that the 2008 Builder Product Night will be hosted at the Colorado Convention Center in Downtown Denver. Associate Members display what’s new for 2008 in “National Show” style with the benefit of a local venue and audience.

At this show, Associate Members have an exclusive target audience of HBA builder members in attendance to see the newest and best, latest and greatest of products available to Colorado’s builders.

A Builder Forum comprised of industry experts will give opinions and lead discussions on the market in addition to all the great food, drink, and networking opportunities.  This is the only yearly event of its kind offered by the HBA. Don’t miss this opportunity.

Builder Member Registration Form - Click Here
Associate Member  Registration Form - Click Here

ORLANDO, Fla. (MarketWatch) -- Home buyers considering a purchase in what is turning out to be one of the worst markets in decades are rethinking their priorities, telling home builders that energy-efficient designs, outdoor living spaces and flexible floor plans are what will draw them to subdivisions today.

Two consumer-preference surveys revealed here Wednesday at the International Builders Show suggest that home buyers are no longer obsessed with "bigger is better" when it comes to their new homes but are looking for spaces that can do multiple duty in helping to manage hectic modern lifestyles.

To read the entire article, click here: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/downturn-forces-consumers-rethink-they/story.aspx?guid=%7b409E269C-EB2D-4546-B63D-7B8B1B501AD6%7d&print=true&dist=printTop

As the calendar changes over to a new year, it seems an appropriate time for the topic of change in the building industry, a sector in which I’ve heard that it takes an average of 19 years to fully integrate a new product or technique.This doesn’t seem unreasonable, given that new products have to traverse the market adoption bell curve – early adopters, mass market adoption, mature market and late adopters – as they become standard practice.

So it is in that context that we see green building as a remarkable shift in thinking over the last 15 years, remarkable because rather than a single product or practice, green building is a new way of doing business. Even if builders aren’t marketing green or aware of the green building components to their homes, the imprint is there in framing members; paints and finishes; carpet and floor coverings; and energy systems and design. National association of Home Builders past-president Charlie Ruma’s words in 1997 were prophetic: “if you aren’t building green in 10 years, you’ll be out of business.”

This is not to say that green building in its purest form is a “slam dunk.” But the Colorado market has been blessed with the largest green building program in the country, and Built Green® continues to support the industry with a wealth of experience and training opportunities that chip away at the finer points of green building. Most markets are not that lucky and are often in the position of catching up to more informed buyers. Built Green Colorado navigates the continuous stream of changes, staying ahead of the curve to the benefit of its members. And it is a good thing because green building is a rapidly moving target.

To read the entire article by Doug Seiter, click here, or see the January 2008 issue of Home Builder Magazine.

To subscribe to Home Builder Magazine, please click here.

DENVER, February 1, 2008 –The Colorado Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) and Denver-based building materials manufacturer Johns Manville (JM) today announced they have teamed up to insulate GEO’s new office space as part of Colorado Governor Ritter’s “Greening Government” plan, which seeks a 20-percent reduction in state government energy use by June 30, 2012.

The insulation, donated by Johns Manville, will be installed beginning today at the Governor’s Energy Office, 1580 Logan Street, Suite OL100 in Denver, a property owned by Jordon Perlmutter, Inc. The insulation retrofit, installed by Allied Insulation of Denver, will maximize GEO’s energy efficiency and improve its overall environmental performance, while reducing the office’s overall operating costs and serving as a model for energy efficiency in commercial buildings across Colorado.

Johns Manville is donating its Formaldehyde-free™ fiber glass building insulation, including Spider™ spray-in insulation and ComfortTherm® batts. Johns Manville’s building science team is providing technical expertise to GEO to ensure proper product selection and installation for the space, resulting in maximum energy efficiency.

All of Johns Manville’s building insulation is made without added formaldehyde to improve indoor air quality for building occupants and installers. JM’s Formaldehyde-free™ fiber glass building insulation consists of an average of 25 percent recycled content, 80 percent of which is post-consumer recycled glass from curbside recycling programs. Spider, which will be installed into GEO’s existing wall structures, provides a superior insulation barrier for maximum energy efficiency, as it fills all gaps and voids in the wall cavity and reaches R-values of R-15 in a 2x4 wall and R-23 in a 2X6 wall. ComfortTherm, which will be installed in the office ceiling, will provide an R-value of R-19.

Click here to read the full press release.

Builders:
Acuff Homes, Inc. – Colorado Springs, CO
Beck Building Company – Vail, CO
East-West Partners, Denver – Denver, CO
Payant Homes – Eaton, CO

Sponsors:
ACH Foam Technologies – Murray, UT
Cosella-Dorken – Beamsville, Ontario

The total number of home registrations for 2007 is 2564.

Remember: Built Green home registration submittals are no longer accepted on a quarterly basis.  Builders must submit and pay for home registrations at the time they pull each permit or on a monthly basis.  The fee per home is $40.

Click here to download the Built Green home registration template.

This month’s sales tip features item #160 from the 2007 Built Green Checklist

160.  Builders may choose only one option from the choices below:

House size does not exceed 2000 square feet of conditioned area (excluding crawl space)
House size does not exceed 1500 of conditioned area (excluding crawl space)

Sales Tip: The overall environmental footprint of a house is, intuitively, proportional to its size. As house size increases, resource use in buildings goes up, more land is occupied, there is more impermeable surface resulting in more stormwater runoff, construction costs rise, and we use more energy. Smaller homes consume fewer resources to build and require less energy to operate.

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© 2007 Home Builders Association of Metro Denver