What's Happening from Environmental Building News
GE and Masco Team Up on Homebuilder Program
In an effort to provide homebuilders and residential developers with a single package that combines high-performance products with advanced building-science principles, industry giants General Electric (GE) and Masco have recently teamed up to merge their existing green programs—GE’s Ecomagination with Masco’s Environments for Living (EFL)—into one Ecomagination Homebuilder Program.
EFL (see
EBN
Vol. 12, No. 7) will continue operation on its own, but builders eligible to be EFL-certified may also opt to enter the Ecomagination Homebuilder Program, which offers participants items not available through EFL alone, including an Ecomagination mortgage and a utility-monitoring and energy-management wall panel, GE’s SmartCommand Dashboard. This last item exemplifies the difference between the Ecomagination Homebuilder Program and EFL; while EFL is strictly performance-based and brand-neutral, the Ecomagination Homebuilder Program requires builders to use certain GE products in the lighting, appliance, and energy-management product categories.
A longtime product manufacturer, Masco created subsidiary Masco Contractor Services (MCS) in the 1990s and now claims to provide some form of product or service to more than half the houses built in the U.S. In 2000, MCS created EFL, offering guaranteed space-conditioning loads and thermal comfort for buildings meeting minimum performance specifications. EFL standards include a tight building envelope, mechanical ventilation, air-pressure balancing, and moisture management. Parent company Masco will soon take over management of EFL, but program developers say they will maintain the program’s performance-based structure despite Masco’s involvement in product manufacturing.
Meanwhile, with its launch of Ecomagination two years ago GE has put a greater focus on offering cleaner technologies, products, and services. GE says that homes built to Ecomagination Homebuilder Program standards would be anticipated to achieve at least 20% fewer household emissions of greenhouse gases and pollutants, at least 20% household energy savings, and at least 20% savings on household indoor water usage. As Jeff Renaud, director of Ecomagination, told
EBN, “Now, in addition to the building envelope, [builders] will look at lighting, appliances, energy management, water fixtures, and solar power,” which, he said, creates a “broader performance objective” than EFL standards alone. Dave Bell, national sales manager for MCS, concurred: “We [at MCS] have historically been all about the building envelope. With GE, we can address the whole house load and essentially provide a whole-house energy program.”
“We view this as a marriage of great technology and marketing on our side and great building science and execution infrastructure on their side,” said Renaud, discussing GE’s interest in working with Masco. Rick Davenport, vice president of marketing for MCS, agreed, explaining that although GE is a commanding force for product development and marketing, “what we have that they lack is homebuilder infrastructure.” Davenport also noted that, from Masco’s perspective, “GE brings a level of credibility necessary for this aspect of the industry.”
David Wax, CEO of the architectural design and energy-consulting firm Independence Energy Homes, commended the collaboration but said he’d “like to see them push their energy efficiency goals harder, from 20% to 30% or 40%.” He also said that while he recognized the value of the program’s prescriptive checklist for production builders, he hesitated to fully embrace it, commenting that checklists “tend to strangle innovation.” Joseph Lstiburek, Ph.D., P.Eng., founder of Building Science Consulting and a primary developer of EFL’s construction specifications, said, “I think [the collaboration] is a logical and natural extension of EFL’s program. Masco is the brains and GE will be the muscle.”
– Rachel Navaro
For more information:
GE Ecomagination Homebuilder Program
Fairfield, Connecticut
203-373-2547
www.ge.ecomagination.com
Masco Contractor Services
Daytona Beach, Florida
386-763-7638
www.eflbuilder.com
August 1, 2007
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Photo: GE
