Kudos to the County of Albemarle:

The Virginia Sustainable Building Network will be holding a training session for Earthcraft House™ in Charlottesville for the first time on January 18, 2007. Earthcraft House™ is a green building standard endorsed by Governor Tim Kaine, the Homebuilders Association of Virginia, and the Blue Ridge Home Builders. The training session will begin at 8:00 AM and end at 5:00 PM on January 18th in the County Office Building on McIntire Road. This training is for those interested in becoming EarthCraft House™ Builders or Inspectors.

The EarthCraft House™ green building program works with home builders to construct resource and energy-efficient homes that lessen the impact on the environment. Earth Craft homes were first built in Virginia about one year ago when the program did a test run in Charlottesville.

The EarthCraft program standards were developed through a unique partnership between Southface Energy Institute and the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association, government and environmental leaders. Together, they created one of the country’s most progressive home building programs. These homes are built of environmentally-sensitive and recycled materials and demand less energy and other resources over time due to energy and water-efficient components.
           
Registration for the training session is required.  Anyone interested in participating in the class is encouraged to visit the Virginia Sustainable Building Network website or call Sean Dougherty at (434)296-5832.

This is great news. I have written before that the catalyst for green building’s emergence will not be “feel-good” reasons, but simple economics. Hybrid vehicles didn’t start to take off until fuel prices skyrocketed and consumers demanded more. My prediction is that the housing market will see a return to buyers staying in houses longer and thus will be able to recoup the costs from living greener, more earth-friendly lifestyles. Better light bulbs are a start.

There has been talk lately about fluorescent bulbs‘ merits (and demerits); buying a few is a start. Soon you might find yourself recycling or riding a bike to work!

Here are some of the Charlottesville, Virginia area EarthCraft builders.

These are some of the properties on the market in Charlottesville/Albemarle noted as being “Earthcraft” – four of which are in a new in-fill development in the City of Cville and another five are in another in-fill developement. I’m telling you, this just might be the sign of a movement afoot. (BTW, if you’re interested in any of these, please contact me)

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