Austin Energy Green Building Residential Program

The Austin Energy Green Building Program provides consulting, resources, and education to help consumers build environmentally-sound homes and workplaces.  Some of the benefits include better health, greater comfort, lower utility bills, less maintenance, and lasting value.  According to the Austin Energy website, Austin Energy Green Building is the nation’s most successful utility-sponsored sustainable building program.

Austin Energy’s Residential Green Building Program is for homeowners and building professionals and uses a rating system for new and remodeled homes.  The rating system is made up of a star system where projects are rated on a scale of 1 to 5 stars; the more green features in the home earnes the project more stars.  Homes are rated in six areas including energy efficiency, testing, water efficiency, materials efficiency, health and safety, and community.  In order to receive a green home rating, a builder, architect, or designer must coordinate with Austin Energy Green Building™, which helps by providing information to help the consumer make good design and specification choices.  The Residential Green Building Program services include a new home rating, consultation services, SMART Housing compliance consulting, technical seminars for members, Green by Design Workshops for homeowners, a Green Building Professionals Directory Resource library with books, periodicals, videos, and material samples, and presentations.

The Single-Family Program Coordinator for the Austin Energy Green Building program was kind enough to provide Regent Property Group with the below information about the program.

"HOMEOWNERS–looking for a new home or remodeling your current one? BUILDING PROFESSIONALS–want to enhance your business?  Find out how AUSTIN ENERGY GREEN BUILDING can help you.  Austin Energy Green Building (AEGB) is an education and marketing program that aims to promote environmentally friendly building throughout Central Texas. Educational seminars and a Home Rating are the heart of the AEGB Single-Family Program.  We invite homeowners to Green by Design, an all-day workshop in Austin, to introduce you to the concepts of green building. By attending this workshop before you get too far into making decisions about your next home or remodeling project, you’ll get new ideas and avoid costly mistakes. Building professionals may attend, too—as sponsors, or to find out what we tell your clients (and you might learn a few new things yourselves).  Our Home Rating is now available for eligible homes in a 25-county area in Central Texas. We award a home 1 to 5 Stars (5 is highest) depending on its level of environmental achievement. We give points for green features in twelve categories from design to landscaping. These points pertain to a home’s energy, water and resource efficiency, comfort, durability and maintenance, and health and safety. Unlike some other rating programs, we require and review for accuracy the calculations for heating and cooling equipment and we require complete home performance testing by City of Austinapproved companies at the end of construction.  Homeowners who would like the quality assurance of an AEGB Rating need to be sure their architect/designer or builder starts the rating process before construction begins (preferably early in the design stage), to get the advantages of the team approach to green building.  Building professionals, such as architects, designers, builders, realtors, and home performance companies, can find new business opportunities through involvement with AEGB.  We offer free monthly education seminars; a newsletter; a yearly networking party; advertising in magazines and trade journals; a well-attended annual tour of homes; opportunities for low-cost sponsorships at our public workshops; free marketing materials; a popular website with a Directory of Green Building Professionals where participants who rate homes are listed and linked; consulting and more.  One homebuilder recently reported to his AEGB representative that he gets half his business through Program referrals.  Check out our website at www.austin.energy.com/go/greenbuilding or call us at 512-482-5300."

LOOKING TO PURCHASE A "GREEN" HOME IN AUSTIN, TEXAS? Contact Brian Talley of Regent Property Group at 512-554-9714 to get started on your Austin home search. 

Source: The raw data in this report was provided by Austin Energy but summarized by Austin REALTOR® Brian Talley of Regent Property Group.  Contact Brian Talley at 512-554-9714 if you need help buying or selling an Austin home or acquiring Austin office space. The information contained herein is subject to errors, omissions and changes without notice.  Any information, statistics, analytics, recommendations or opinions provided in this report are subject to errors and/or omissions and are not in any way guaranteed as accurate or reliable by Brian Talley or by Regent Property Group LLC.