Color this Family Home Green 

By Reid Forgrave (Des Moines register)

When Porsche Walker looks at her new Habitat for Humanity house not far from the Forest Avenue library in Des Moines, she sees it as something special. It’s a home the 21-year-old single mother can use to create a comfortable atmosphere to raise her two daughters.

But when environmental advocates look at Walker’s new house – which could become the third house in the state with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification – they see it as special for a different reason: It shows “going green” is possible, even for those with a lower income

“When you look at it, you can’t really tell,” Walker said. “But when I was at the house dedication, some people who were totally about the environment were there. I was like, ‘I guess I’m going green, too.’ ”

LEED certification is a process that gives a green stamp of approval on a building project. The first such certification program used nationwide, LEED provides an independent review of building projects, ensuring they are environmentally responsible, profitable, and a healthy place for people who are both building the structure and then living or working in it.

Walker moved in last month. Her boxes aren’t all unpacked yet. She has started noticing the little things that make her house environmentally special: the fact that she doesn’t have to blast her furnace to stay warm in the winter, that the light bulbs are all compact fluorescent, that there’s an extra 6 inches of insulation to keep the house airtight.

“You can do this whole green thing in an affordable way,” said Lynnae Hentzen, executive director of the nonprofit environmental organization Iowa Center on Sustainable Communities. “The biggest lesson is that it’s certainly attainable for anyone. If an organization like Habitat can integrate this into its building practices, it’s replicable. Any contractor should be able to embrace these practices for their clients.”

LEED certification is an intensive checklist-based program in which all the contractors building a home collaborate to make sure the house is built with a certain number of environmentally friendly, sustainable techniques. LEED certifications come with certain levels. Silver is the lowest, then gold, then platinum. Walker’s house got the silver certification.

It’s a practice that’s gained a foothold among commercial buildings, but is only now becoming popular for homes.

“There’s just so much they take into consideration,” said Erin Wiggins, a rater for Cenergy, a company that does energy efficiency consulting for new construction and existing homes, including Walker’s house. “It’s not just the house. It’s the land development, the direction it faces, what type of seeding, did you pour concrete or use open pavers, all sorts of stuff.”

For Walker’s house, a number of sustainable techniques were used to score points for the LEED certification checklist:

- All appliances are Energy Star, meaning they meet efficiency standards.

- Products that go into the house, from the caulk to the glue to the sealants, are low-emissions, which helps with indoor air quality.

- The house was aired out 48 hours after construction was completed in order to disperse odors related to construction.

- During construction, contractors had to reduce the amount of waste. All the material that left the construction site and headed to a landfill, a recycling center or for reuse had to be weighed and tallied.

- Deeper-than-normal, two-by-six framing in the house means there is more room for insulation to cover the walls of the home.

- The insulation used is all low-formaldehyde.

“Lots of people look at the face of the house and that’s what’s important,” Wiggins said. “They don’t look under the walls. As soon as we cover the walls, we’ve covered up just about every energy-efficient element of the home.”

Habitat officials didn’t have a dollar figure for how much more the LEED construction cost, but they said it wasn’t much. Energy savings should make up the difference.

“They did not spend money on granite counter tops,” Wiggins said. “That money went into making this house more sustainable.”

For Porsche Walker, she’s just excited to raise 2-year-old Justyce and 1-year-old Davinity in a house of her own.

Walker was raised by her grandmother since she was 2 weeks old, as her mother was in and out of prison. It hasn’t been easy for her to get ahead. She works two jobs – in the annuities department at Principal Financial Group, and on weekend nights as a receptionist at Elsie Mason Manor downtown – while studying for her master’s degree at William Penn University.

The best part of her new Habitat for Humanity home is that it’s only two blocks from her grandmother’s home. And it will save her money going forward on energy bills. “When you think about it, everything is going to be cheaper with my bills, too,” Walker said. “That’s important. If you’re struggling already, why would I want to get into something that’ll give me new debt?”

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