Green homes go beyond lessening their environmental impact; they also actively mitigate the effects of the environment upon them. All homes can face damage from environmental hazards, prompting builders to implement resiliency practices to reduce such risks. This post will detail the prevalence of resiliency building, specific practices by hazard, as well as resiliency certification systems. This is a follow up to the previous posts about the prevalence of green building and green building practices, based on the The Building Sustainably: Green & Resilient Single- Family Homes 2024 SmartMarket Brief.  Prevalence   The most common natural hazards can be broken into five categories: wind, flood, fire, earth, and temperature. Three quarters of builders say they mitigate for at least one of these five hazards. Expectantly, there is a difference by region in those that mitigate at least one of the five hazards. The highest percentage is the West at 84%, then the South at 77%, followed by the Midwest at 69%, lastly the Northeast at 66%. Broken down by each hazard, wind was the most actively mitigated risk at 55%. Next was floods (44%), temperature extremes (41%), fire (36%), and then earth-related hazards (12%). These are broken out by region in the chart below.   Wind Hazards  Breaking into each hazard, builders/remodelers were further asked which wind mitigation practices they used. The top three were as follows: use a roof system built for high-wind events (46%), continuously sheath exterior from roof to foundation with oriented strand board or plywood (41%), and use high-wind-rated roof coverings installed using practices for high-wind areas (38%). The other four practices are listed in the chart below. Builders and remodelers also mentioned additional practices that they use to address wind hazards including the use of hurricane ties and using hurricane clips for each rafter, additional bracing, and design strategies like designing for a “partially enclosed structure” and detailing airflow through attic spaces.   Flood Hazards  Flood damage is another risk for real estate. The top practice used to mitigate water damage was using a secondary water barrier on the roof at 32% of total respondents. This was followed closely by raising the lowest floor of home more than one-foot above flood levels (31%), and using water-resistant materials for walls that allow for easy repair/replacement or promote drainage behind wall cladding (30%). The other practices are provided in the chart below.   Fire Hazards  Wildfire events present another risk for homes and home builders. The top practice for fire mitigation was using noncombustible or fire-resistant materials for exterior walls at just 18%. The second most used practice was installing a roof with fire-resistant features (17%). Followed by the third, landscaping to create a defensible barrier (15%). The final three were installing multipaned windows with one tempered glass pane (13%), installing vents that resist intrusion of embers and flames (13%), and protecting floors over open foundations with noncombustible cladding and type x gypsum board (10%). A few additional approaches were also volunteered by respondents: fire-resistant insulation, fire-suppression systems, draft stops, fire-retardant spray foam and heavy timber construction.  Earth-Related Hazards  Earth-related hazards include earthquakes, landslides/mudslides, and sinkholes. Earth-related resiliency measures are the most niche as a majority of home residential developments are located away from active fault lines. Hence, it’s unsurprising that only 12% of respondents overall actively address these hazards, but this percentage increases to 40% among respondents in the West. The top practices were: provide strong floor-to-wall connections (11%), provide positive connections of posts to beams above and footings below (10%), and create a continuous load path (10%). The rest all fell below 10%*.  Resiliency Certifications   All home builders and remodelers, regardless of whether they identified hazards that they actively seek to mitigate, were asked if they received any of the seven resiliency certifications: NGBS Green+Resilience, LEED resilience credits, IBHS FORTIFIED, NFPA Firewise Community, US Resiliency Council Earthquake or Wind certification, and Arup REDi™ Rating System. Only 14% responded that the homes they build are resiliency certified. The top resiliency system certifications were NGBS Green+Resilience (7%) and LEED Resilience Credits (5%).  Builders who demonstrate that they can build homes that are better able to withstand environmental hazards could develop a competitive advantage. Because these hazards can cause insurance rates to increase, and insurance in some regions can become unavailable altogether, resiliency practices can be helpful to consider. Resilient and green construction are great ways to help builders and homeowners reduce the risks of such events as costs to recover from natural disasters continue to skyrocket.    *Other earth-related hazard mitigation practices: provide strong wall-to-foundation connections (9%), use hurricane clips to connect roof framing to the walls and/or blocking between trusses or rafters continuous sheathing on cripple walls with hold-downs (9%), anchor bolts and tight nail spacing use exterior braced wall practices for high-wind or high-seismic areas or engineered shear walls (8%), install portal frames at garage door openings using (8%), hold-downs and anchor bolts (7%), screw and glue drywall to reduce cracking (5%)    Discover more from Eye On Housing Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.

NAHB and the Dodge Construction Network published research on the prevalence of green building in The Building Sustainably: Green & Resilient Single- Family Homes 2024 SmartMarket Brief.  The research found that the overall share of home builders classifying more than half their projects as green1 is at 34% for 2023 a one-percentage point increase from 2019. Similarly, for remodelers, this figure stands at 22%, a five-percentage point increase from 2019. This post will further examine these statistics, as well as delve into the drivers and obstacles for green building.   Level of Engagement   To further dissect the share of builders and remodelers involved with green projects, see the charts below. As shown, the largest proportion for both builders and remodelers are those with “no green engagement”. However, these numbers have diminished since the 2019 report, decreasing two percentage points for builders and seven percentage points for remodelers. Following those with no green engagement, are those with “little green engagement” (1-50% green projects). For builders, the next highest share is “dedicated green builders” (more than 90% green projects), and then “green builders” (51-90% green projects). The opposite is true for remodelers with the least prevalent share being dedicated green builders.    When looking at dedicated green builders, we see regional differences as well. Based on new home builder respondents, the region with the highest share is the Northeast at 45%. Followed by the West at 28%, the Midwest at 22%, with the South at 16%.   Motivations Respondents who have done green projects were asked to pick the most important reasons for doing so. The top reason at 48% was “The Right Thing to Do”, followed by the closely aligned “Creating Healthier Homes” at 38%. This demonstrates many builders’ intent to create efficient, resilient and environmentally friendly housing, whether it is considered green or not. Other reasons listed include: “Code Requirements” (36%) “Reputation in Industry” (30%), “Differentiate Product in Local Market” (23%), “Market Demand” (18%), and “Tax Credits or Government Incentives” (16%).   Obstacles  Respondents were also asked the top obstacles for them to not undertake green projects. The top answer at 77% was “Lack of Customer Demand”. This is unsurprising with “Market Demand” being listed almost last for reasons to build green. “Too Expensive” was the second reason at 53%. All other reasons fell below 20% of respondents.   Costs Delving into the expense of building green, respondents were asked about the cost premium to build green. Across the board, remodelers found green building to be more expensive.  The highest percent of remodelers (36%) and builders (38%) were those that found green building to be between 11-20% more costly. The next highest for remodelers (28%) were those that found the cost premium to be more than 20%, while the second highest for builders were those the cost premium under 10%. The other categories are shown in the chart below.     Unsurprisingly, builders and remodelers with more green engagement found the cost margin to be lower than those who did fewer green homes. Nearly half (45%) of dedicated green builders found that the added cost of building green is 10% or less. This is in contrast to only 25% of green builders, and 16% of low green engagement builders who listed the added cost as less than 10%. This may suggest that dedication to green building is needed to result in sufficient expertise and economies of scale to lower the cost of building green.   Looking forward, this post will be followed by a series of analyses that further examine the The Building Sustainably: Green & Resilient Single- Family Homes 2024 SmartMarket Brief.    *A green home incorporates strategies in design and construction that improve energy, water and resource efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and minimize environmental impacts on the site; and/or is certified by a third party to the National Green Building Standard, LEED for Homes, or any other green rating system or high-performance standard.