By Jennifer Garrett
Madison Magazine
Special To Channel 3000

Ready to renovate? Try going green. You can make affordable, attractive and easy choices that cut energy bills, save the rain forests or improve indoor air quality. And no one is asking you to build your house from straw bales. Taking small eco-steps can make a big difference, too.

New Houses: Green Built Or Energy Star?

Both Green Built Homes and Energy Star Homes are voluntary programs that builders and owners can use to make dwellings more environmentally friendly and energy efficient than the state building code requires. The programs overlap in significant ways, but your Energy Star Home is not necessarily a Green Built Home, and a Green Built Home is not necessarily an Energy Star Home.

Both programs demand that the homes meet or exceed energy efficiency standards. To earn Green Built Home certification, homeowners must meet eight basic requirements and then select additional green-building options from a nine-category checklist that covers everything from siting and land use to stormwater management to interior and exterior materials to the efficient use of space. Choices include using recycled carpeting, landscaping with native plants and selecting a front-loading washing machine. Each option has a point value, and the goal is simply to collect sixty points from five of the nine categories -- not to do everything on the checklist. Since you get to pick and choose, you can direct your green to the environmental issues that matter most to you.

Energy Star Homes also incorporates comfort, safety, moisture, durability and air quality factors in its rating system. The program relies on third-party contractors to evaluate construction and perform tests to award certification. Wisconsin Focus on Energy, the program that administers the Energy Star program, offers a cash-back incentive of $260 to offset the consultant's certification fee.

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