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Newsbrief from Environmental Building News

October 1, 2009

Habitat and Home Depot Bring More Green to Affordable Housing

Habitat for Humanity and The Home Depot Foundation will provide $30 million over the next five years to build energy-efficient homes like this one, built by the Habitat affiliate in Jacksonville, Florida.

Habitat for Humanity and The Home Depot Foundation recently announced the expansion of their Partners in Sustainable Building program, which provides grants to Habitat affiliates for building energy-efficient, green, affordable homes. The initiative, begun as a pilot in 2008, will direct an additional $30 million over the next five years in grants to Habitat affiliates nationwide (see EBN May 2008).

During the past year, the pilot program helped 30 Habitat affiliates build more than 250 homes to green standards. According to the organization, the pilot demonstrated energy savings between 15% and 30% in those homes compared to the typical Habitat home—and up to 50% in the homes that were built to LEED Platinum standards.

In the first year of the expanded program, another 120 affiliates will become eligible for the grants, with more new affiliates becoming eligible each year. By the end of the five-year program, Habitat plans to have constructed 5,000 new energy-efficient, affordable homes and to have helped more than 400 affiliate organizations educate their staff and participants about building to green standards.

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