News & Events - Boulder's Leading Green & Zero Energy Home Builder

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MARCH 16, 2009

Ecofutures Building Co-Founds Efficiency First

Efficiency First represents America's Home Performance Workforce, ranging from energy auditors and raters to contractors who are the front line of our climate battle, embodied in green-collar jobs from weatherization to HVAC. By organizing these groups nationally, Efficiency First has a stronger voice to design and implement performance-based incentives for home energy efficiency retrofitting. With more emphasis on retrofitting the 80 million homes in America, the U.S. can simultaneously decrease dependance on foreign oil, reduce carbon emissions, and empower local economies. Learn more about Efficiency First on their website: www.efficiencyfirst.org.

FEBRUARY 26, 2009

Ecofutures Building's Latest Zero Energy Home: HERS -3 Achieved!

In a February 26 email sent to Ecofutures, Adam Stenftenagle of Sustainably Built remarked: "Congrats on this project! It's the first negative HERS score certificate I've produced!". Which got us to wonder: Could this be one of the first negative HERS Index Scores in the country?

Regardless of whether we are the first builder to achieve the score, or not, we are thrilled to review the amazing performance test results. The Net-Zero Energy Home in the Foothills West of Denver is almost 40% tighter than Solar Harvest, our first Net-Zero Energy Home. Visit the Net-Zero Energy Homes page to link to this and other net-zero energy homes.

FEBRUARY 2, 2009

Eric Doub featured in this month's Kitchen & Bath Business Magazine

Writers at Kitchen and Bath Business magazine took notice of Ecofutures' strong focus on green and net-zero energy construction and chose to highlight the motivation driving this decision in a profile piece on Eric Doub, president and founder of the company. The profile piece gives a unique, personal perspective on influences in Eric's life that lead him to create Ecofutures as it stands today. The article can be seen both online on the K+BB website and in the January 2009 K+BB digital edition, and choosing "Contents" then "Profile" on page 30.

JANUARY 27, 2009

Eric Doub Discusses BuildSmart:
Does Building Under BuildSmart Cost More?

In a late-January town meeting, county officials met with builders, homeowners, prospective buyers and members of the community to dicuss several points of criticism to Boulder County's new BuildSmart program. BuildSmart is a precedent-setting building code that requires homes to reach certain levels of energy performance (calculated on the HERS scale), based on home size. Under this new regulation, for example, homes greater than 5001 square feet must perform at a HERS Index 25 - nearly net-zero energy. Many people have criticized this new regulation stating that it imposes unfair financial burdens as a result of the extra expenditures required for renewable energy systems. Eric Doub presented his perspective that BuildSmart does not cost more during this debate and shares handouts and a presentation online. Click here to view Eric's presentation and download useful handouts on the topic.

JANUARY 21, 2009

Green Building Advisor Website Launches Today with Case Study of an Ecofutures' Home

From the folks at BuildingGreen and the publishers of Fine Homebuilding comes the Green Building Advisory website, GreenBuildingAdvisor.com. The website is dedicated to providing the most useful, accurate, and complete information about designing, building, and remodeling energy-efficient, sustainable, and healthy homes. Notable green builders from across the nation have been asked to join the Green Building Advisory team, and have showcased their homes on the new website. One of Ecofutures' homes, the South Boulder Net-Zero Energy Remodel is prominantly featured among the case studies of exemplary green homes. Click here to go to the Green Building Advisory case study.

JANUARY 20, 2009

Ecofutures Recognized for Performance in Building America's "Builder's Challenge"

Ecofutures was honored in Las Vegas this weekend for our outstanding performance in the Department of Energy's Builder's Challenge. The Builder's Challenge calls on builders to construct homes that meet a 70 or better on the EnergySmart Home Scale (E-Scale). The E-Scale is a scale that allows homebuyers to understand - at a glance - how the performance of a particular home compares to that of others. Ecofutures built 3 such homes, all of which ranked below 20 on the scale. See one of our certificates on the Broomfield Net Zero Energy home page.

DECEMBER 8, 2008

Solar Harvest Press Goes International!

Even though we here at Ecofutures headquarters can't read this article, we are thrilled to see the Solar Harvest story published in another language. This fall we were found through an internet search by Yan Lu, editor of Shanghai's Bund Newspaper. Over the course of a few emails, Yan interviewed Ecofutures about Solar Harvest and shared our achievements with the Chinese public in a feature article! Click here to download a PDF copy of the article.