Green Building Value of Green

Green Building

Value of Green Home Building

Applying the concept of value innovation to green home building

The consensus in the home building industry is that sales are dismal, and the market, particularly in some areas of the nation, seems unlikely to rise even to 2007 levels in the near future. Yet according to the U.S. Census Bureau U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, "sales of new one-family houses in February 2009 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 337,000... This is 4.7% (±18.3%) above the revised January rate of 322,000, but is 41.1% (±7.9%) below the February 2008 estimate of 572,000" (New residential sales in February 2009, 2009, HUD). Sales are not flat but they are sluggish, and clearly, offering 'more of the same' is unlikely to cause sales to escalate in the future. However, through the concept of value innovation, specifically through green building techniques, a green light for sales can be seen at the end of the tunnel of economic darkness.

The value innovation concept demands that marketers question traditional product and market strategies, such as 'more house' is inherently better. Particularly in a difficult market, an organization "must examine radically what constitutes real value for customers by asking fundamental questions: what value offerings need to be introduced or increased to meet customer needs? What value offerings can be reduced or eliminated, because they do not constitute real value for customers?" (Kotelnikov 2009) Value innovation sometimes means creating customer needs -- convincing customers, for example, of the importance of taking society in to consideration, as well as themselves when making choices about constructing and buying homes, and showing them how their own interests coincide with those of the planet.

Value innovation must spur the home industry to introduce revolutionary products that provide value through energy efficiency, and savings that accumulate over the life of the building. The concept of value innovation means to give customers what they really want, as opposed to what they think they want, and above all, to provide something new that is not glutting the market. Building new green homes and making existing unsold homes green is the core of such a strategy, as applied to the housing market today. Green building can refer to a wide range of industry practices, spanning from simply installing energy-efficient windows, doors, and light bulbs to reduce environmental wastage and enhance customer value to more radical ideas like solar power, or constructing entire apartment units that require the use of environmentally-friendly cleaning products. While adding value through 'greening' a building can be added at any stage of the building's lifecycle, "from design and construction, to renovation and deconstruction. However, the most significant benefits can be obtained if the design and construction team takes an integrated approach from the earliest stages of a building project" (Why build green, 2009, EPA).