The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Central and South Texas is also near and dear to the hearts of his employer, Sterling Custom Homes. The Austin luxury real estate builder is showing its support for Grambley and the foundation by pledging to match Grambley’s fundraising efforts up to $2,500.

Sterling Custom Homes also donated to the foundation earlier this year. The builder gave $1 per new Facebook “Like” from its fan page (http://www.facebook.com/sterlingcustomhomes), up to 300 new fans.

Since 1980, the Make-A-Wish Foundation® (http://www.wish.org/) has been enhancing the lives of children suffering from life-threatening medical conditions through the granting of wishes. The Foundation is composed of nearly 25,000 volunteers, enabling the non-profit to grant a wish every 40 minutes.

Grambley’s goal is to raise $5,000, the amount of money it takes to grant one child a wish. “Training for a marathon is a long, difficult endeavor,” said Grambley. “Knowing that my efforts will benefit a child in need will provide me with an added incentive when I hit the road for the 16, 18 and 20 plus mile training runs.”

Anyone interested in helping Grambley along in his fundraising efforts may donate online https://secure.wish.org/ourfriends/031-000/garygrambley.htm.

Sterling Custom Homes is one of the area’s top Austin home builders. For more information, visit the Sterling Custom Homes website.

On the surface, social media may not seem like an integral or even necessary piece of green building marketing. However, more and more, consumers are turning to the internet to find out about the latest in energy efficiency and green building practices. Those in the green building industry who use tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs and Twitter to promote their products and services will find that they can drive more traffic to their sites and set themselves apart from their competition.

To help RESNET attendees navigate through the world of social media, Mitch Levinson, mRELEVANCE, LLC managing partner, is presenting a seminar today. During his discussion, Mitch will teach participates how to use social media and key words to promote their businesses and develop relationships with consumers.

The session will teach:

• How to increase exposure through the use of social media tools
• What social media tool are out there and what works best based on individual needs
• Real-life examples of social media and their influence on the marketplace

For more information about RESNET, visit the website. If you’re unable to attend the conference, but still want to incorporate these tools in your marketing plan, contact Mitch at mRELEVANCE.

Green Builder magazine, Green Builder Media’s flagship publication, has once again received recognition for its  investigative reports, analysis, design ideas and pertinent information for professionals and consumers.

The magazine received two national journalism awards from the National Association of Real Estate Editor’s annual journalism competition. The first award, “Best Trade Magazine Report for the Residential Real Estate, Mortage/Finance or Homebuilding/Residential Development Industries,” went to Green Builder’s editor in chief Matt Power for the article titled “The Limits of Technology.” The article addressed which green technologies really progress sustainability.

The second award of Best Residential Trade Magazine was granted to Green Builder magazine because of the variety, depth and beauty that the magazine holds.

The magazine is led by a veteran staff including editorial director, Cati O’Keefe; editor in chief Matt Power; and national design director, Eddie Malstrom.

For more information about Green Builder magazine, visit the website.

And they’ll probably be disappointed.

Crude photos and simple floorplan sketches can waste the time of the busy homebuyer. That’s where FloorPlanOnline comes in. The company’s service provides not only the layout of the home, but also beautiful, crisp, detailed photos that are easily accessed from the floorplan. Not only is the “virtual tour” a great tool for consumers, agents can utilize search engine optimization and an analytical program to optimize search placement and measure results.

FPO Version 2.0 was recently announced, which adds greater customization abilities and media options. A WalkThru(TM) video component has been added as well as a Room Planner where users can drag and drop furniture.

A 2009 study from the California Association of Realtors showed that 20 or more photos online reduced the time a home is on the market by 50 percent. In a competitive real estate market, FloorPlanOnline is a great tool to leverage.

To wind your way through these issues, you need the help of a Green Designated REALTOR®. If you’re in the Atlanta, Georgia area contact Meg Thompson of Meg & Co. Meg recently received the National Association of REALTORS® Green Designation.

The Designation is an obvious step for a person who already implements so many environmentally-friendly policies in her office. Some of those include:

• Encouraging clients to participate in EarthCraft building standards
• Using ENERGY STAR appliances
• Multiple recycling bins in sales centers
• Responsible recycling of electronic devices
• Keeping documents electronic as much as possible and making double sided copies when printing
• Conducting meetings online if appropriate

Meg was trained on green homes, buildings and sustainability issues. She also learned to guide clients through the components of a green home, costs versus benefits, rating systems, green marketing and financial incentives for building or remodeling green.

If you are in the Atlanta area and looking to buy or sell a green home or commercial building, be sure to contact Meg Thompson at meg@megandco.com.

Lots of people have visited the home to find ways to live greener lives. Last weekend was packed. Be sure to come out this weekend and meet the Designers and hear about their Eco-Friendly home design services. Be sure to look for Richard Feis, the Builder while you are on-site and ask about Sustainable Home Design and Building.

Show Home Hours:

Thursday: 9:30 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Friday: 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Saturday: 9:30 a.m – 5 p.m.
Sunday: 1:30 – 5 p.m.

The new affiliation makes it even easier for home buyers in those states to find green homes and provides additional technical training, education and business opportunities for HBA members.

“I’m delighted to welcome the home builders in these seven states to the certification services offered through NAHBGreen,” said Dunn, who is a home builder in Point Pleasant, W. Va.,. “Our members are looking for an authentic, cost-effective and voluntary way to offer certified green homes to their clients, and they will find it in www.NAHBGreen.com.”

In addition to serving as a gateway to green home certification services, NAHBGreen-affiliated programs offer green building seminars and classes to their members, including the Green Building for Building Professionals class required for builders, remodelers and others seeking the Certified Green Professional educational designation from the NAHB University of Housing. Nearly 1,300 industry professionals have earned the designation since its February introduction.

Buyers seeking homes built with energy-, water- and resource-efficient features can call their local home building associations to find green builders in their area – or meet them at the Parades of Homes, Green Home Expos and other consumer events sponsored by affiliated programs.

Seven local HBAs also affiliated with NAHBGreen last week:

- Huntsville / Madison County, Ala., Builders Association
- Northern Idaho Building Contractors Association
- Home Builders Association of Jackson, Miss.
- Lake Norman, N.C., Home Builders Association
- Wilmington-Cape Fear, N.C., Home Builders Association
- Johnson City, Tenn., Area Home Builders Association
- Building Industry Association of Clark County, Wash.

“The future of home building is green, and if you don’t get ahead of it now, you’ll be left behind,” noted Jeff Stokley, president of the Wilmington-Cape Fear HBA. His HBA is encouraging its members to become Certified Green Professionals and building up its ranks of home verifiers so builders can draw on their expertise as well.

Stokley himself has broken ground on a 1,132-unit development in which he expects each home to achieve at least NAHB silver-level certification. The development will open in the spring.

National Green Building Certification is administered by the NAHB Research Center, which trains and accredits local verifiers to inspect homes in their area. NAHB oversees the educational offerings, including the annual NAHB National Green Building Conference, which takes place May 8-10, 2009 in Dallas, and the NAHB National Green Building Awards.

“The ability of aggressive building code mandates to achieve massive energy and greenhouse gas emissions savings is incredibly limited. The wide-ranging geographic differences in state and local climates create specific building needs, making national benchmarks almost untenable,” he said.

Further, “significant increases in costs for efficiency upgrades and the additional increase in home price to accommodate them has the potential to harm the part of the market with the least flexibility to react to price constraints: the marginal first-time home buyer,” Belcher said. “NAHB does not support the assertion that a broad public policy objective should be achieved on the backs of a relatively narrow segment of the market with limited resources.”

And even when a home is built to be more energy efficient, it does not translate into automatic energy savings. “Almost half of the energy consumed in a home is the result of the lighting, refrigeration, laundry, cooking, and electronics use by the residents,” Belcher pointed out. “The disconnect between [building] envelope improvements – which are primarily the responsibility of the builder, and resident behavior – over which a builder has no control, is one of the major barriers to achieving greater improvements in residential energy efficiency in new homes.”

“It is false to assume that just requiring states or local governments to adopt an arbitrary above-code compliance target for all new construction is going to translate into improved enforcement  . .  or achieve the energy savings goals envisioned,” Belcher told Congress. “If resources, or infrastructure, to enforce the code are not available, then the savings assumed will never materialize.”

Belcher also asked Congress to extend the New Energy Efficient Home Credit, which was enacted in 2005 and expires at the end of the year. Department of Energy research shows that residential buildings consume 21.9% of the nation’s energy and produce 21% of its greenhouse gas emissions. However, Belcher pointed out, mandating that all new homes must achieve significant above-code performance will not produce the greatest energy savings because new homes are a small of the problem. Solutions to address all 21% – and include existing homes -demands greater focus.

Belcher also explained how the NAHB National Green Building Program can move the market. “The dynamic ways that the green building movement is rapidly changing residential construction is only one example of a broader, market-determined push for greater efficiency. In the midst of the worst housing downturn since World War II, builders continue to see growth in demand for green and energy efficient homes, as well as increased requests for efficiency upgrades in the 128 million existing homes, comprising the bulk of the nation’s residential energy consumption,” he said.

Boardman then discusses “green building,” pointing out that although the changes are a step forward in bettering our environment, that more could (and should) be done. Boardman proposes repairs and green renovations on existing homes in order to “recycle” them. Today there are so many older homes that are often torn down in order to build bigger and more contemporary houses by large development companies in order to make big profits. But what if those sames companies bought the existing homes and renovated them into true green, recycled homes? That would be the most efficient use of resources and lowest impact on the environment. However, are the recycled homes something home buyers would really go for, or would they prove Boardman’s theory that the green movement is simply a marketing gimmick to sell new earth-damaging products?