At first glance, it does not look like your typical sustainable home—and that’s because it isn’t. It is not Net Zero, not a Passive House, not a Living Building Challenge home, nor a LEED-certified home. It is, however, a Built Green Home. What does that mean?

Similar to LEED for Homes, Built Green is a point-based certification program that “provides a framework by which to measure the level of ‘green’ in a home.” According to Jason, though, the Built Green certification process is “significantly less arduous than LEED.” More about the Built Green program can be found in this recently published story.

But the more interesting part is that the homeowners had not requested the home to be more sustainable — it just came together that way, because it is a high quality, durable home. Pheasant Hill Homes is very experienced in Passive Home and Net Zero Energy building practices, so while “energy efficiency was not the main objective, a lot of it was incorporated. The way we look at it is that was lower hanging fruit. Air tightness is the big one; insulation details were over and above the standard. We paid attention to healthy indoor air quality and local sourcing of materials.”

Overall Goals for the Home

The primary objective for the homeowners was to create a family retreat that would be in the family for generations; it needed to be built to last. “That’s why we have wood: the exterior cladding is from locally sourced western red cedar. We know on the West Coast that it will last for hundreds of years, when it’s maintained properly.” 

The other goal was that it should be a beautiful home. According to Jason, anyone who visits the home notices the remarkable charm and warmth of the home. Part of that comes from material reuse: located on a small island in the harbor, an old cabin that was on the site was carefully deconstructed, and the material was reused.