Registration opened last month and so far is running slightly ahead of last year’s figures. There were about 1,200 attendees at the conference in Dallas last May.

The annual Tour of Homes is being organized by the Green Home Builders of the Triangle, veterans of green home tours in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area.

The tour includes examples of affordable, production and high-end homes, both completed and under construction. Remodeling and multifamily projects are included as well.

The growing interest in green building and requests from long-time conference attendees and more experienced green builders convinced the conference working group, led by Maryland builder Mike Bell, to increase the selection of more advanced, in-depth educational sessions along with the introductory courses and seminars.

Among the new offerings:

• The Economics of Green Homes and Green Home Building. This session will examine real world case studies drawn from both single-family and multifamily new construction and weatherization projects to demonstrate the economics of green homes and identify opportunities to build a better, more salable product; reduce costs; deliver good investment returns and value to the customer; and differentiate green homes from the competition.
  
  
• The Latest in Appraising and Lending on Green Buildings. This program will provide an update on FHA, VA and conventional financing as well as the state of green appraising. Also covered will be the so-called “smart commute” and movement within the secondary market to create a true green mortgage.
  
  
• Green Renovation & Addition. A start-to-finish case study of an extensive renovation and addition project that turned a 15-year-old, 1,800-square-foot, inefficient home into an award-winning green project will review the decision-making process of the home owners as they worked with an experienced team of green builders.

In addition, there will be an all-day GreenTensive session on May 17 to encourage advanced and veteran green builders and remodelers to collaborate and share solutions to the challenges they have encountered.

There is also a two-day course, Advanced Green Building: Building Science, that will instruct builders and remodelers on proper building science techniques for constructing and remodeling high-performance homes. Course attendees can earn credit toward a Master CGP designation. The course will be held May14-15, prior to the conference.

NAHB members receive discounted conference registration. Visit the registration page for more details. [return to top]