Developers Build More Net Zero Homes as Climate Concerns Grow


In the three years that Nicole Rae and Brian Mastenbrook lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, they grew increasingly concerned about California’s wildfires. The skies would turn orange, ash would settle on plants and porch railings, and Ms. Rae, a 30-year-old teacher who has asthma, would have trouble breathing.

So in May, she and Mr. Mastenbrook, a 37-year-old tech worker, sold their home and moved to Ann Arbor, Mich. Mr. Mastenbrook has family in Michigan, and officials in Ann Arbor were taking steps to lower the city’s carbon footprint.

They admired plans for a “net zero” community there, Veridian at County Farm, to be filled with solar-powered, all-electric homes that would be free of the fossil fuels whose greenhouse gas emissions have contributed to climate change.

“If those homes were built and ready to buy today,” Ms. Rae said, “we already would have purchased one.”

“We stepped into the model home, and they said, ‘These are triple-pane windows,’” said Mr. Sehrt, who was familiar with green building from his childhood in Germany. “After that it was just one win after another.”

There is widespread agreement that residential buildings are crucial to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels. Buildings, including their construction, account for about 40 percent of carbon emissions, with housing responsible for about half that. Retrofitting inefficient structures is the biggest challenge, but building sustainable homes is also important.

For decades, homeowners experimented with solar panels and off-the-grid houses. Then pioneering developments began cropping up. Grow Community, on Washington State’s Bainbridge Island, introduced its first solar-powered homes in 2012; its third and final phase of development is about to get underway.

Marja Williams, a development consultant who helped guide Grow in its early years and has lived there since 2014, said her monthly utility bill was just $7.97 — the basic service fee. Her house produces more energy than it uses, with the utility funneling off excess power in summer and crediting her account in winter when the solar arrays are less productive. A Grow home that originally cost about $480,000 sold recently for nearly double that, she said.

Builders such as Mandalay Homes and Thrive Home Builders have specialized in homes with ultra-efficient energy use. Others are experimenting with net zero construction.

Crown Pointe Estates recently introduced what may be the most upscale version: the “zero series” homes at the company’s MariSol Malibu development in Ventura County, Calif. The first residence, more than 14,000 square feet, is on the market for $32 million.



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