KANSAS CITY – Habitat for Humanity has recently formed a “Green Team” to encourage environmentally sensitive building among its affiliates.

According to Graham Davis, a former construction manager from the organization’s Kansas City affiliate and now head of the Green Team, the group will help Habitat affiliates build homes “that families could hand over to their children’s grandchildren.” Of Habitat’s approximately 1,500 affiliates, over 400 have signed on with the group.

Under Davis’s direction the Green Team is educating member affiliates on energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and sustainability issues. Affiliates who sign on receive educational aids, such as a primer on green building called the Green Team Playbook, as well as newsletters and technical bulletins. The Atlanta-based Southface Institute, the U.S. DOE, the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), and the Oak Ridge National Labs are all assisting the Green Team in its educational effort.

The Team is also conducting blower door testing and insulation installation at Habitat projects and training seminars where each affiliate’s own “Green Champion” – a local member who acts as a conduit for information and techniques – will receive intensive training.

“All habitat affiliates are indigenous in their operations, and how they build a house is largely left in the hands of that affiliate,” said Davis. “So we’re trying to provide good consistent information that is volunteer friendly, that is affordable, that enables them to accomplish energy efficiency without ratcheting up costs.”

Currently, the Team is focusing on building energy-efficient homes and plans to have all Habitat homes built to EPA Energy Star standards. In fact, at a five day “blitz build” in Houston this past June, all 100 homes completed were built to those standards. The Green Team, working with the FSEC at the event, also helped to conduct energy performance tests in the homes.

Although the Team will at some point turn more attention towards alternative building technologies and materials, Davis explained that for now he is concerned with improving the conventional building processes and materials most affiliates use. “We want to be supportive of alternative technologies like strawbale and SIP’s, but our main thrust right now is addressing conventional construction because that’s what the affiliates are doing,” he said. “We’re taking them from the known to the unknown.”

The team is, however, currently promoting things like job site recycling and resource-efficient techniques: at a past blitz build there was extensive job site recycling, including the recycling or reuse of sheet rock, scrap lumber, aluminum, and vinyl.

“My personal conviction is that the greatest environmental impact that a home is going to have is how much energy it’s going to require and how long it will last,” said Davis. “We should build it to last 150 to 200 years and build it so it has the smallest possible energy demand.”

Contact: Graham H. Davis, Green Team Coordinator, 1423 East Linwood Ave., Kansas City, MO 64109