We have come to expect the nightly news and our local papers to report regularly on medical and technological advances that affect our lives on a daily basis. But it's rare that the average consumer knows what technological advances are made in new home building arena that can affect us as well. After all, it's not "hot" news for TV anchors to report on phenomenal energy-efficiency breakthroughs or tell us about new products that save the environment.

Within the building industry, however, hundreds of individuals, companies, trades people, and even governmental agencies are hard at work to improve the American Dream for all of us. In cooperation with the National Association of Home Builders, the Building America program combines the knowledge and resources of industry leaders with the U.S. Department of Energy's technical capabilities to act as a catalyst for change in the home building industry. It is touted as a "private/public partnership that provides energy solutions for production housing," according to program sources.

The Building America approach is one of "systems engineering," which unites segments of the building industry that traditionally work independently of one another. "Teams" of architects, engineers, builders, material suppliers, community planners, mortgage lenders and contractor trades are formed to find solutions and tap on one another's expertise to find solutions to important homebuilding energy efficiency issues.

This systems engineering approach considers all factions of homebuilding and their interplay with one another, realizing that one component of a house can greatly affect others. Items such as the building site, the mechanical systems and structural systems are studied in relation and reference to one another, bringing an integrated approach to energy efficiency formerly considered mutually exclusive in many ways. This enables teams to incorporate energy saving strategies at no additional costs to the end buyer, while working together to effect change.

The team partners are asked to evaluate their design, business and construction practices, to try to identify where costs can be saved, and to re-invest that savings into improved energy performance and product quality, using a design-test-redesign-retest process along the way.

Currently, there are five teams using a total of more than 50 separate companies. They include:

Published: June 7, 2000

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