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How “green” are we? Survey aims to find out

by Dan on October 20th, 2007

Just how committed are U.S. homeowners to green building?

A lot, suggests a new survey by the Civil Society Institute based in Newton, Mass.

Admittedly, the society isn’t the most unbiased when it comes to alternative energy. Visit their site, and you’ll see what I mean. Society members don’t like coal, for instance, and they’re not shy about it.

But the organization’s Citizens Lead for Energy Action survey, released Oct. 18, does provide an interesting snapshot of how some U.S. residents view a host of alternative energy programs. Some of it, naturally, focuses on green building, a practice that many homebuilders now offer and that many consumers are demanding.

Put simply, green building involves such steps as using recycled materials to build new homes, adding solar panels and wind energy systems to residences to reduce their reliance on public utilities, installing energy efficient appliances inside these properties to lessen their energy consumption and using environmentally friendly insulation and flooring.

According to the CLEAN survey, 84 percent of U.S. residents say that the country should focus on the aggressive expansion of wind, solar and other renewable resources. The same percent agreed that homeowners should receive incentives for making their homes more energy efficient.

The survey also reports that 81 percent of residents would favor state and federal tax incentives for new construction that relies on available technologies to decrease heating and cooling energy consumption – and their related bills.

One of the more interesting nuggets from the survey was this: If U.S. residents could tell the government where to get the power to run their homes, 58 percent would request wind, solar or other clean energy alternatives. Only 3 percent would suggest traditional coal.

These results buoy the hearts of environmentalists across the nation. I’m a firm believer and supporter of green building, too. I’ve talked to people who’ve seen a tremendous drop in their monthly energy bills because of it.

But let’s be honest: The survey avoids the really tough question regarding alternative energy. It doesn’t ask homeowners if they’d still be willing to rely on solar, wind and other forms of energy if it significantly increased the cost of their newly built home in the first place.

No surprise, cost is the biggest hurdle to green building. But the survey results are still good news. As technologies improve and costs lower, you can bet that the number of green homes will shoot up.

We just need to work on lowering those costs.

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