Nationally Renowned Green Builders Collaborate with University of Missouri Energy Efficiency Research Consortium to Build High Performance Home

    LOUISVILLE, KY, September 15, 2014 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Following the success of the first Proud Green Home located near Atlanta, Georgia, a new high performance home, The Proud Green Home of St. Louis, is under construction to deliver sustainable benefits to its owners and to educate and inspire building professionals and consumers about the benefits of building and living green.

ProudGreenHome.com has partnered with Hibbs Homes, Verdatek Solutions, Curtiss W. Byrne Architect, and the High Performance Buildings Research Center, part of the Midwest Energy Efficiency Research Consortium at the University of Missouri-Columbia, to build the five-bedroom, 3,700 square-foot, Prairie-style home. Designed by architect Curtiss W. Byrne, the home in Wildwood, Missouri is expected to meet a number of prominent green building standards, including:

- Energy Star for Homes
- ANSI ICC-700 The National Green Building
- DOE Zero Net Ready home
- EPA Indoor airPlus
- WaterSense

The home will undergo third-party verification to ensure its performance and quality.

Due to one of their children having asthma and allergies, the homeowners want a home that will not cause adverse respiratory issues for the child. The homeowners and the builders are integrating products with low presence of VOCs to provide a safe comfortable environment for the entire family. The home will incorporate an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) to ensure continuous ventilation.

"This home will meet the needs of the new owners who are looking for a comfortable, energy efficient home that also delivers a high level of indoor air quality," said Kim Hibbs, CEO of Hibbs Homes in Chesterfield, Missouri.

"The home was designed as a system featuring off-the shelf building products and advanced construction techniques to ensure greatly reduced energy and water usage," said Matt Belcher, principal with Verdatek Solutions and director of the High Performance Buildings Research Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Notable high performance home features include:

- Integrity Windows from Marvin
- Dow Building Solutions including spray foam insulation
- LG major appliances
- LG Electronics
- Mattingly Lumber & Millworks factory-built walls and trusses
- Benjamin Obdyke Home Slicker Rainscreen
- Boral interior and exterior brick and stone
- Cree Lighting LED lights
- Continuous slab insulation
- Huber ZIP System sheathing and tape and AdvanTech flooring
- STEP Warmfloor radiant underfloor heating
- Solatube tubular daylighting devices
- GeoComfort geothermal heating and cooling system
- Kohler low-flow plumbing fixtures
- Zehnder America Energy Recovery Ventilation
- ACT D'MAND Kontrol Systems
- Solar power ready
- Solar water heating ready

In a partnership with the High Performance Buildings Research Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia, the Proud Green Home of St. Louis will be featured as part of the green building curriculum for students, and includes long-term energy and water usage monitoring.

The first Proud Green Home was built by The Imery Group in the sustainable community of Serenbe near Atlanta. Accolades for the home include:

- NAHB Green Awards, #1 Project of the Year For Single Family - Small Volume
- DOE Zero Energy Ready Home Housing #1 Innovation Award Winner, Custom Category
- EarthCraft House Platinum Level, #1 Home of the Year, 2013
- First DOE Zero Energy Ready home in Georgia

"The Proud Green Home program educates and inspires homeowners and building professionals to create high performance homes across the spectrum of the market," said Robert Fincher, CEO of Sustainable Community Media, LLC, publisher of ProudGreenHome.com.

The neighborhood where the Proud Green Home of St. Louis is being built has original indentures from 1897 that expressly stated the desire to maintain the "ecological and rural aspects" of the subdivision.

"We believe the makers of that indenture would be greatly pleased at the focus on this goal we bring to this and all of our projects," Hibbs said.

The home was designed with the latest building science to ensure durability as well as offer high performance with good value for the homeowners.

"The focus was on creating a high performance building envelope, the part of the home that will be there the longest," Belcher said. "We incorporated the design of the mechanicals, electrical, lighting, and plumbing systems within the building to optimize performance and materials efficiencies. The design and materials mitigate water issues, and the home will deliver extraordinary energy efficiencies and a very high level of indoor air quality for the residents."

ProudGreenHome.com is a website dedicated to delivering objective, useful and inspiring news and information to an audience of professionals, such as homebuilders, remodelers, architects, specifiers, landscape architects, designers, other industry pros and homeowners who are interested in creating high performance, green and sustainable homes.

Hibbs Homes is a leading custom green homebuilder in the St. Louis area. Since leaving his career in broadcasting in 2006, owner and general contractor Kim Hibbs has been building high-performance and luxury homes for a variety of price ranges and lifestyles. Hibbs speaks to local building professionals and architecture students on a variety of green building topics. He built one of the first gold level green verified homes in the St. Louis area, and is the builder of the first Active House in North America. Hibbs is a Master Certified Green Professional through the National Association of Home Builders, and is active in the St. Louis Home Builder's Association where he currently serves on the board.

Verdatek Solutions is a construction firm specializing in green homes, light commercial construction, agricultural building, and low-impact development. Verdatek Solutions is owned and operated by Matt Belcher, a nationally recognized green builder, consultant, and educator. Belcher has been actively involved in the St. Louis construction industry for three decades, including six years as a building code official, and is a green building consulting partner with Hibbs Homes. Belcher is Director of the High Performance Buildings Research Center at University of Missouri Columbia, and serves as Chair of the NAHB's Green Building sub-committee, and previously served on their Energy and Construction Codes and Standards committees. Belcher was appointed by the ICC to serve in the development of the new International Green Construction Code and the ICC's Residential Energy Committee.

Curtiss W. Byrne Architect, LLC is an architecture firm based in Chesterfield, Missouri, specializing in creative solutions for residential and small commercial projects. Curtiss received his Master of Architecture degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1992 and obtained his architectural registration from the State of Missouri in 1997. The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards also certifies Curtiss. He is a member of the St. Louis Home Builder's Association and the HBA's Green Building Council.

The Midwest Energy Efficiency Research Center Consortium is a collaboration of interdisciplinary energy efficiency programs of The University of Missouri. Led by Robert Reed, Associate Research Professor, the primary goal of the center is to develop academic courses and training programs that help weave energy efficiency into the fabric of the Midwest United States.

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