Developed by National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Dodge Data & Analytics, the 2020 Green Single Family and Multifamily Homes SmartMarket Brief presents a portrait of green housing activity and marketplace trends in the US.
The Brief addresses four main topics: market activity, marketing, drivers and obstacles, and products and practices – drawing on data collected from over 1,500 surveys of home builders in America.
The study found that dedicated green builders were three times more likely to report that it did not cost more to build sustainably (12%) than builders with little engagement or experience with sustainable homes (4%). This data indicates that once builders conquer the learning curve, have teams that are comfortable with and experienced in green building practices, and realize economies of scale where possible, green building can be done cost effectively.
Other key findings include:
- Market Activity: Experience with achieving energy efficiency, improving indoor environmental quality and water efficiency are common among single family home builders, but homes incorporating a full range of green building practices are less common.
- Marketing: the opportunity to increase consumer demand makes marketing strategies particularly important. This may include targeting messages to different types of buyers and finding the most effective ways to communicate about green.
- Drivers and obstacles: Not only is consumer demand a top driver for future green building, but builders are very influenced by consumer perceptions about cost, performance and quality
- Products and Practices: Use of many products and practices improving energy efficiency is widespread in the home building industry, and other practices that promote water conservation, material resource conservation and improved indoor environmental quality are also quite common. Few builders, though, use renewable energy systems on the majority of their projects.
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