Wednesday, October 28, 2009

How much "green" do I need to go Green?

I'm frequently asked by clients if remodeling "Green" is more expensive. The answer is an astounding NO!

Competition in the burgeoning market of green construction is booming, bringing prices down for a wide variety of sustainable materials. At the same time, standard, non-sustainable materials are rising in price due to the decrease in their availability.

Labor prices for green building are complimenting this trend in materials as well. Green building specialists, who have been previously able to ask higher prices for their expertise, are no finding that they must be more competitive. As more contractors enter the green building marketplace, homeowners can expect Green building to become as competitively priced as traditional building practices.

Eventually, thanks to changes in federal, state and local public policies, Green building will become the new standard building practice and the need to ask, "Is Green building more expensive?" will become moot.