"If you build it right, you will make money."
Building green has many interpretations, but the goals include efficient use of land and energy, water conservation, improved indoor air quality, and resource conservation, primarily by using recycled materials.
Most commercial and residential builders focus their green building efforts on landscaping.
A number of area residential developers - including Realen Homes, of Malvern, and Arcadia Land Co., B.J. Dreuding, N. Vaughan & Sons, and Pohlig Builders, on the Main Line - have been recognized for their efforts to save trees on building sites and use native species and hybrids. Native species tend to require less water than imported varieties.
Saving a few trees is a good step, but green building is about more than that, its advocates say.
The impetus for green is still coming primarily from the government and institutions, although residential and commercial builders' associations are coming around, slowly.
For example, Susan Maxman & Partners of Philadelphia designed the city's first "green" building - the Cusano Environmental Education Center at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum - for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"While residential builders still maintain that green building is too expensive, we are starting to see more corporate clients with an interest in projecting a green image," said architect Muscoe Martin, a partner in the Maxman firm.
Thanks to the substantial size of projects such as Cusano, the federal government can reduce the cost of green buildings by taking advantage of economies of scale, he said.
And while the initial outlay might be higher than it would be with conventional materials and practices, the efficiencies achieved will pay for themselves over time, Martin said.
