Green Made Comfortable
Net-Zero, LEED Platinum demonstration home interior emphasizes IAQ and sustainability
By Nick Slevin
The design team behind The ABC Green Home 4.0 luxury mountain home in Crestline, Calif. had a clear set of goals to accomplish with this build: to create a move-up, single-family home on a 10,000 sq. ft. flat lot, that achieved Net-Zero energy and LEED Platinum, with nine additional energy certifications, while demonstrating the principles of high performance home building, design, technology and construction for our U.S. home builder subscriber audience.
The sustainable interior was curated by Jillian Pritchard Cooke and her team at DES YN, an Atlanta based interior design team with huge experience creating higher target IAQ projects, featuring sustainability and wellness. Jillian also operates the Wellness Within Your Walls (WWYW) certification program. This project was a pilot home for WWYW certification and achieved exemplary status. This was largely accomplished by the builder (yours truly) staying out of the way, listening, learning and paying attention to the design team. Having undergone the WWYW certification training program, alongside architect Chuck Good-Man, AIA, having these talented folks take the lead with material selections from our Product Partners was very straightforward.
The ABC Green Home 4.0 luxury mountain home in Crestline, Calif. had a clear set of goals to accomplish with this build: to create a move-up, single-family home on a 10,000 sq. ft. flat lot, that achieved Net-Zero energy and LEED Platinum”
Material Partners, encouraged to promote their most sustainable and innovative products, were quickly on board. The team was able to accommodate a custom waterfall kitchen island request from DalTile, who’s materials were also used on countertops, flooring and back splashes in the kitchen and six bathrooms. The team also specified a sustainable Mohawk carpet in the high performance attic. Samsung’s innovative energy efficient appliances were a great fit. The high-tech refrigerator is a big talking point.
With high IAQ goals driving an innovative approach, Dunn Edwards’ no VOC white paint was very welcome. Panasonic’s Energy Recovery Ventilation unit was also a great fit. This project was the first for the new ERV technology. Installed alongside the Panasonic range hood and Whisper Cool bathroom ventilation fans, this combination of IAQ products contributed significantly to the HERS rating and the Net-Zero results achieved by the project.
Our Product Partners logos below are all linked to their websites. Please visit these firms to make your own selections for your next projects. We are starting production work this Fall on our web series, which will release next year. This is the link to the virtual tour from the project website: https://www.abcgreenhome.com/streaming/virtual-tour-greenhome-4-0/
Nick Slevin is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Builder and Developer. He can be reached at nslevin@builder.media.