1.15.2008 12:44 PM

California Home Builders Assoc. Announces Ambitious Energy Efficiency Goals

Bay Area Homes to Slash Energy Use 50%

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Photo: Istock

By Brian Clark Howard

The San Francisco Bay Area's largest association of home builders has committed itself to cutting in half the amount of energy used in the houses it creates by the year 2020, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The goal goes above and beyond California's current standards.

The Home Builders Association of Northern California will slash energy use 50 percent and carbon dioxide emissions 30 percent compared with 1990 levels, President Joseph Perkins said at a recent green jobs summit.

"We want to give the residents of this region what they want, and they want green homes," said Perkins, according to the Chronicle.

Builders will target those green goals with more energy efficient materials and appliances, as well as some solar panels and other sources of renewable energy.

In an interesting development, Perkins called on Bay Area communities to adopt mandatory green building standards. That's something business leaders are often loathe to do -- request that guidelines be made mandatory for them. It goes to show how far green building has come, particularly in progressive northern California.

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