Joyce Mason, vice president of marketing for Los Angeles-based Pardee Homes which has been erecting shelter products since 1921, said her firm didn't start a serious green building program until 2001 but has averaged 3,000 home starts a year since, mostly in California and Nevada. "There are so many [energy-saving] products out there that we had to learn to understand and then be able to tell our customers what they were all about," Mason said. One of the most important principles in green construction is to "make sure you are building a house with products that will be suitable to that climate zone." One product her company used to create innovative carpeting was a recycled plastic water bottle. "About 10,000 of them make 2,000 sf of carpeting," she said.

Don Ferrier, president, Custom Homes, Fort Worth, said he recently built a 2,000-sf house for his daughter, Heather, that had a hard construction cost of $117 per sf or about $234,000. "That didn't include landscaping and related costs," he said. He showed a series of slides depicting the passive solar design techniques he used, including overhangs to control the hot summer sun in his market. He landscaped the property with native Texas plants that don't need additional watering. Other high-tech features in the home include low-flow faucets, dual-flush toilets, decorative compact fluorescent lighting, structural insulated panel walls and the latest heating and air conditioning systems. The products "might cost about $80 a month to save about $120 month in energy costs," Ferrier pointed out.

Added Pardee's Mason, "Sometimes we get a little frightened by the initial cost of the products, but the end result in energy savings more than makes up for it."

Commercial structures, like office buildings, condominium and apartment complexes, are also part of the green building concept. For example, in Jacksonville, Liberty Property Trust of Malvern, PA has received certification for its recently completed 158,000-sf 5201 Gate Parkway building, a build-to-suit for PHH Mortgage of Mt. Laurel, NJ. The $20-million, three-story structure is the first commercial LEED-certified building in Jacksonville and one of only 10 buildings in Florida to be LEED-certified, according to Mike Heise, Liberty Property vice president.

"The idea that a building can be attractive and functional as well as environmentally responsible is a winning proposition for the landlord, tenant and community," Heise said. "Companies are beginning to see the long-term economic and social values of green buildings, and the practice is becoming more pervasive across the country." He predicts that "within the next decade, we could reach the point where if you're not including green elements in building, design and operation, your project will be excluded from consideration by many government and corporate users."