At a housing industry conference about 20 years ago, one of the speakers said environmentalists were a lot like watermelons, and here I quote, “green on the outside but red on the inside.”
At this point I don’t think anybody in the housing industry sees the environmental movement—which expresses itself as sustainable building in relation to housing—as some sort of communist plot. Nonetheless, I think too many builders still see red when green building standards are mandated at the state or local level. The argument by builders against mandating green building standards usually centers on the added costs associated with building more energy-efficient housing.
And it does cost more, for example, to beef up insulation, use more energy-efficient HVAC systems, and better-quality windows, and in many markets housing affordability is already a big problem. But granite countertops cost more than laminate countertops; hardwood flooring costs more than builder-grade carpeting; oversized built-in stainless steel refrigerators cost more than free-standing models; and a skylight costs more than no skylight.
Despite the cost, these more expensive building products have become all but standard features in new homes all across the country.
I know what you’re thinking and what you’d say to me: “Well, buyers want these luxury features and are willing to pay for them, but they’re indifferent, at best, to green building products and have real concerns about the added costs, even if there are potentially measurable long-term savings on utility bills.”
To that I say you’re not really dealing with a cost problem, you’re dealing with a marketing problem, particularly when it comes to the next great wave of home buyers: millennials looking for their first home.
NAHB conducted a survey of about 1,000 recent or prospective buyers of small homes, which we’ll consider representative of young, first-time buyers. They asked those buyers what new-home features were most essential and/or desirable. Turns out four of the top 10 most desired features were energy-related: Energy Star–rated appliances (No. 1);
Energy Star–rated for whole home (No. 3); Energy Star–rated windows (No. 4); and extra insulation (No. 10).
More generally, and maybe more importantly, other surveys show that 90% of millennials believe in climate change (aka global warming), 40% see buying and using green products as a cultural norm, and three-quarters say they’re willing to pay more to buy products from companies that are committed to making a positive impact on the environment.
All these attitudes, according to consumer marketers, will affect millennials’ buying behavior long term.
Maybe you’ve noticed farmers’ markets sprouting up everywhere. Maybe you’ve heard of Whole Foods. And maybe you’ve noticed how entire aisles in other grocery stores are dedicated to everything from organic cleaning supplies to organic cereal. In every case organic products seem to cost more, but shoppers, many of them millennials, can’t seem to get enough.
Think of organic in the grocery business as a proxy for sustainable building in the housing industry. It seems to me there’s a lesson there for builders. Instead of being hesitant to give green building a chance, maybe you should consider branding your business as green as an almost necessary fact of doing business and instead of seeing red when green building is mandated, you should see green. Green as in more home sales to a new and different generation of new-home buyers who see building green not as a necessary evil but good in just about every way imaginable.
