Thanks to an army of late-comer home builders, all vying to jump on the latest trend bandwagon, the term “Green Home” has been so overused and ill, defined thereby rendering it confusing and ultimately meaningless to new home shoppers. Let’s face it, to really live in a “Green Home” today you’d have to harvest your own rainwater and store it in a cistern on the roof of your bamboo hut.
LEED for Homes on the other hand, has been virtually invisible to the average consumer. Although the term does have equity with some savvy home buyers, the same ones who are down with all the latest trends in New Urbanism and Sustainable Developments. But, by and large, it’s likely the average new home buyer still doesn’t have a clue as to what it really means. Yet some new home builders continue to tout the fact that their neighborhoods are LEED for Homes certified. That would be fine if the USGBC (US Green Building Council) promoted their LEED for Homes program to the public in a major way. But they don’t right now and it’s still not common knowledge.
Welcome to Old Town Commons, located in Old Town Alexandria, this is EYA’s newest residential neighborhood. And it’s one of the largest LEED for Homes certified neighborhoods in the entire country. So, since we’re a big believer in speaking plain English, we proposed a new way for EYA to talk about the features of current construction best-practices and energy efficiency design to prospective home buyers. “Smart City Living,” is the term we’ve coined to highlight the advantages of buying a new EYA home; and it’s prominently displayed in the sales office as well as a soon-to-launch interactive counterpart for EYA.com. The objective is to translate technical features into tangible homeowner benefits so prospective buyers get a clearer picture of EYA’s holistic approach to “green” building, as well as a better understanding of the advantages that a new EYA home offers.
