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From Calvert News
Despite some encouraging environmental and energy-efficiency
developments in recent years, none of America’s 13 largest publicly
traded homebuilders has “fully embraced the emerging market of
sustainable building design and construction,” according to a major new
study by Calvert—one of the nation’s leaders in the field of
sustainable and responsible investing—with support from the Boston
College Institute for Responsible Investment.
However, Calvert
found that K.B. Home, of Los Angeles, is “clearly leading the
homebuilding industry in terms of environmental sustainability,” while
four other homebuilders—K. Hovnanian, Red Bank, NJ; MDC Holdings,
Denver, CO; Standard Pacific, Irvine CA; and last-place finisher NVR
Inc., Reston, VA—are on what the report terms the “sustainability
bottom rung.” As the Calvert report explains: “The biggest challenge
facing this group is that, for the most part, they have not
acknowledged that there is a market for green homes or that they have a
role in serving or promoting it.”
For best-to-worst rated, the
balance of the top 13 U.S. homebuilders are: tied for #2 D.R. Horton,
Fort Worth, TX; and Pulte, Bloomfield Hills, MI; #4 Centex, Dallas, TX;
#5 Lennar, Miami, FL; #6 Ryland, Calabasas, CA; #7 Beazer, Atlanta, GA;
#8 Meritage, Scottsdale, AZ; and #9 Toll Brothers, Horsham, PA.
Entitled Greener Pastures for America’s Homebuilders? A Survey of Sustainable Practices by the Homebuilding Industry,
the Calvert report concludes: “Our survey of the 13 largest publicly
traded U.S. homebuilders finds that, while every major homebuilder has
incorporated some environmental and efficiency programs and products
into some of their new homes, none has fully embraced the emerging
market of sustainable building design and construction. Calvert’s study
of the sustainable policies, programs, and performance of the nation’s
largest homebuilders revealed that the industry has a long way to go
before any of the companies can truly claim to be addressing the risks
and opportunities inherent in the environmental and climate change
dilemmas.”
Commenting on the report, Stu Dalheim, Director,
Shareholder Advocacy, Calvert Group, said: “This is a real and growing
issue for homebuyers and for investors. As consumers become more
educated about environmental options and green residential
construction, and as regulators increase incentives for green
development and restrict conventional development efforts, some
homebuilders may be at a competitive disadvantage if they have not
integrated sustainable design and construction principles into their
construction. In the green building market there is a first-mover
advantage: Companies that make a concerted national effort to integrate
sustainability into project sites, construction materials, and
construction processes, as well as to provide energy, water, and
habitat conservation options in finished products, will be able to
build a brand image as the environmental choice for home construction.
This brand will help environmentally conscious consumers make their
selection of a homebuilder.”
David Wood, Director, Boston
College Institute for Responsible Investment, said: “Calvert’s efforts
to identify and benchmark best practices in sustainable homebuilding
are a leading indicator of how sustainability is likely to be
integrated into investment analysis of the homebuilding sector in
coming years.”
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