Trends

Lakewood Ranch has been an eco-movement leader since 2003. “We did research and found out that green was the way to go,” says Bob Sisum, director of builder programs at Lakewood Ranch, the mega-development that straddles the Sarasota-Manatee county line. “We wanted to raise the bar here.”

It took a couple of years to get the necessary certifications, but today more than 14,000 acres at Lakewood Ranch have been certified green. Since 2005, every new village within the community is being built to Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC) standards, and about 850 green homes have already been completed.

Fourteen builders work in Lakewood Ranch’s green development areas, says Sisum. “Builders are not only meeting the minimum FGBC standards, they’re exceeding them,” he says. Todd Johnston Homes’ Mandalay model at The Lake Club, Lakewood Ranch’s newest village, for example, has photovoltaic roof panels that generate power for the home.

Their Lakewood Ranch experience convinced many area builders to implement green standards companywide, and they are now working on green homes and developments elsewhere in the region. “Once builders saw how easy it was to be green, they just decided to incorporate it in their standard specifications,” says Drew Smith, president of? Two Trails, Inc., a green building consulting firm that works with many area home builders. “So Lakewood Ranch has been very instrumental in the green movement in the Sarasota-Manatee area.”

One of these builders is Lee Wetherington Homes. The custom homebuilder went green across the board more than two years ago and now works with Two Trails to qualify its houses for certification bythe FGBC. “The green revolution is out there, and we think it’s a good thing,” says company president Lee Wetherington.

All new Lee Wetherington Homes have environmentally friendly and health-promoting features like tankless water heaters, zero-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints, low-flow plumbing fixtures, Energy Star appliances and Florida Yards & Neighborhoods-certified landscaping. Though these elements drive up the home price by around $3,500, Wetherington believes consumers are willing to pay a little up front to reap big savings in energy and maintenance costs later. “Usually those [up-front] costs are recovered within about three years, and after that it’s all savings,” he says.

Bradenton-based Neal Communities just officially started building green homes, working in the Country Club East section of Lakewood Ranch. “We’ve been doing it unofficially for a long time,” says Mark Sochar, vice president of construction. “But as for being certified, we’re doing our first homes now. We’re all becoming increasingly aware; we all have to do our part. So this is one thing that we can do that will make a difference for many years to come.”

Vision Homes also has been setting an example when it comes to green building. In 2006, the company, in a joint venture with the Home Builders Association of Sarasota County, built a model “Tech House” in Sarasota’s Trillium neighborhood. “It basically had every single idea that we could think of to earn green certification,” says Mike Padgett, owner and vice president of Vision Homes. “[We built it] so we could show the community what different ideas they could put together to be certified green.”

Vision Homes now uses many of those ideas in homes it is building in two green developments, Gladstone Park in Sarasota County and Old Tampa Estates in Sarasota" target="_blank">Manatee County. Homes here have insulated windows, carpets made from recycled soda bottles, air-conditioning systems that help improve air quality, and centralized water heaters that reduce the time it takes for hot water to reach faucets. “All of the homes are certified green [by the FGBC],” says Padgett. “We’re not just doing these things and telling you. We actually pay for the certification process in both communities.

“We feel like people can go around bragging about owning a Vision Home,” he continues. “They’re not only saving money, they’re also helping the environment and living healthier.”

After Bonita Springs-based WCI Communities built its first green home on Florida’s east coast in 2001, the company decided its next development, Venetian Golf & River Club in North Venice, should be green, and that every home there should be certified by the FGBC.

“What we felt as a company was that our homes were already built to a certain green standard,” says Karen Childress, WCI’s environmental stewardship manager. “And achieving Florida Green Building Coalition standards was certainly doable. It just demonstrated that our homes have those qualities and benefits—energy efficiency, good indoor air quality and conservation of natural resources.”

Venetian Golf & River Club has been certified both as an FGBC Green Development and an Audubon International Sustainable Development Project Gold Signature Member. “That is a very special community, because it has tremendous outdoor amenities as well as the homes having green building features,” says Childress.

One development soon to join Venetian on the local green scene is Pacifico, a community of 54 single-family homes, 116 townhomes and 132 two-story condos planned by Taylor Woodrow Homes for 78 acres north of the intersection of U.S. 41 and Stickney Point Road in Sarasota. Thirty percent of the land will be preserved as natural habitat.

David Langhout, vice president of Taylor Woodrow Homes, says Sarasota County government incentives for green certification, including fast-track permitting and reduced permitting fees, helped make the decision to go green easier.

“Although it is an additional cost to meet these standards—somewhere in the 5 percent to 10 percent range—we believe the target buyer will be motivated and accept that,” he says. “And it will actually be advantageous to us because they will recognize the savings in long-term operation of their home.” Langhout expects to start development at Pacifico this summer and to go to market by this fall, and the company plans to use the project as a pilot program for future green developments.

Taylor Woodrow isn’t alone. Mercedes Homes just completed its first certified green-built home in Sarasota" target="_blank">Manatee County’s River Plantation. Two Trails’ Smith is working to certify Benderson Development’s University Town Center and the multi-developer Bay Street Village & Towncenter in Osprey as green developments. Waterford Companies in Venice plans to make green building a companywide standard and has three green projects currently in the works, including its Lake Vista development on U.S. 41 in Nokomis, which will offer affordably priced condos located above retail space. And the Home Builders Association of Sarasota County recently established a Green Building Council, co-chaired by Lakewood Ranch’s Sisum.

“The interest in green building is growing exponentially,” says Smith. “A lot of that has to do with the press; that’s what’s bringing this to the forefront. And the more that’s out there, the more public awareness it will generate, and it will actually generate demand to really push green building into the mainstream in the next three to five years.”

Even remodelers and renovators are coming onboard. MyGreenBuildings has generated a lot of buzz for its remodel of a two-bedroom home on Goldenrod Street near downtown Sarasota. It turned the 1,000-square-foot dwelling into a luxurious three-bedroom, three-bath home that also happens to be green.

“The reason we did the prototype on Goldenrod was to prove that you can take something old and turn it into something that has all the bells and whistles of a new product, and also looks just as sexy as everything else, but is green at the same time,” says Steve Ellis, the company’s co-founder. “One of the primary reasons we want to work with existing homes as much as we can is the tremendous amount of embedded energy in those structures. One of the things that makes a company green, and a building green, is to use what’s there and rebuild in a way that creates a new product that is super durable, really efficient, and extremely healthy to live in.”

Planting a Seed
When is a green lawn not green? When it relies too heavily on water, pesticides and fertilizers.
But thanks to the University of Florida’s Florida Yards & Neighborhoods (FYN) program, more people are learning they don’t have to sacrifice good looks to have a planet-friendly landscape.

“Creating a Florida-friendly landscape does not necessarily mean creating a ‘wild-looking’ yard, but it does mean creating a landscape that is more of an environmental asset than a liability,” says Angela Polo Maraj, builder/developer landscape education specialist at the Southwest Florida Water Management District, which partners with the University of Florida to support FYN programs throughout its service area. “Florida-friendly landscaping? is a simple, common sense system that includes the wise use of pesticides, water and fertilizer.”

Many local builders and developers are taking a Florida-friendly approach to landscaping. Homeowners can do the same, advises Maraj, by enlarging existing landscape beds, adding groundcover in areas where turf won’t grow, and using sustainable mulches to help retain water and reduce weeds.

“As our state population continues to grow, our natural resources are being depleted,” says Maraj. “By creating water-efficient, environmentally sound landscapes, our resources can be preserved and potentially harmful fertilizer and pesticide use will be reduced.”
For more information, visit www.floridayards.org.