Betenbough Homes Commits to Build 400 NAHB Research Center Green Certified Homes in 2011
Upper Marlboro, MD – February 22, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Betenbough Homes, based in Lubbock, Texas, recently announced that it will have all its homes Green Certified by the NAHB Research Center to the National Green Building Standard™ this year. These Green Certified homes will be offered to buyers at no additional cost.
“We understand that healthy living in addition to energy and environmental savings is important to our homeowners,” said Ron Betenbough, vice president of Betenbough Homes. “Our high volume of construction teamed with our strict focus on efficiency in every part of the building process is what is allowing us to provide sustainable, green homes for West Texans at no additional cost to each family.”
Betenbough is one of only three regional production builders in the United States currently committed to certifying 100 percent of homes through the Research Center’s National Green Building Certification program. And, with plans to build 400 new homes in 2011, this leading West Texas home builder will have the highest volume of homes certified to the Standard in the Southwest.
“Homes certified to the National Green Building Standard provide value to their owners,” according to Michael Luzier, president of the NAHB Research Center. “Certification by an independent, third party like us ensures homebuyers that Green Certified homes will be more affordable to operate, and more comfortable and healthy for their occupants than code minimum homes. It’s impressive to see a leading builder like Betenbough offer the inherent value of green homes to their customers without raising sales prices.”
The National Green Building Standard was developed by a Consensus Committee and then approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in early 2009. Since that time, hundreds of new homes and multifamily buildings, remodeling and renovation projects, and residential land developments have been Green Certified by the Research Center to the Standard. In fact, the program just recently issued its 2,000th green project certificate, which accounts for over 3,200 individual green housing units and developments given the diversity of what the Standard covers.
The Standard requires progressively higher levels of points in each of six green building categories to attain higher levels of certification. One of the largest single green point earners for Betenbough Homes, according to production manager Corey Lusk, was the builder’s engineered framing system, which was implemented in 2001.
“Our engineered framing system streamlines the building process in an environmentally-friendly way,” said Lusk. “Each home’s wall panels and roof trusses are constructed off-site and transferred to the home site for assembly, collectively resulting in less waste and better quality control.”
Other features of Betenbough Homes’ Green Certified homes include low-VOC paint, low-flow plumbing, use of recycled materials, Energy Star certified windows, and Huber’s ZIP System® combination structural sheathing, water barrier and air barrier to improve the efficiency of the building envelope.
For more information on green Betenbough Homes, visit betenbough.com/green. For more information on the NAHB Research Center’s National Green Building Certification program or the National Green Building Standard, visit www.nahbgreen.org.
About NAHB Research Center
The NAHB Research Center, located in Upper Marlboro, Md., promotes innovation in housing technology to improve the quality, durability, affordability, and environmental performance of homes and home building products. Created nearly 50 years ago as a subsidiary of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the NAHB Research Center has established itself as the leading source for reliable, objective information and research on housing construction and development issues. Through its various testing and certification services, the Research Center seal is internationally-recognized as a mark of product quality and an assurance of product performance. Additional information about the Research Center is available at www.nahbrc.com.
