Signature goes green

Signature Custom Homes is going green. The local home-building company, headed by Las Vegas native Brian Plaster, has signed up as the first participant in the Southern Nevada Green Building Partnership, a program developed by the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association and the Green Building Initiative of Portland, Ore., to help builders design and construct more environmentally sensitive, or "green," new homes in metropolitan Las Vegas.

Signature Custom Homes President Plaster said he will design and construct two green homes. The first will be a two-story, 7,000-square-foot home in The Ridges Village in Summerlin on the western edge of the Las Vegas Valley for his parents, company founders Richard and Wendy Plaster. The second will be a two-story, 3,500-square-foot home on a lot at Palomino Lane and Shetland Road in the historic Alta Drive neighborhood for himself and his family.

Construction on the home at The Ridges is expected to begin by the end of the year; the home on Palomino and Shetland is expected to get under way in the spring or summer of next year, he said.

Green features will include radiant heat barriers, tank-less hot water heaters, low-flow water fixtures, dual-flush low-flow toilets, house paints with low- to no-volatile organic compounds, dual-glazed and tinted windows filled with argon gas, window awnings, solar panels to produce electricity, water-catchment system, Energy Star appliances and air-conditioned units with a Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio rating of 17, Plaster said.

He estimates that building green will add about 3 to 5 percent to the cost of constructing the homes, but those extra costs will be recouped in five to seven years because of the savings on resources, such as electricity, gas and water.

For example, he believes solar panels will produce enough electricity to lower a $700 to $1,000 monthly power bill in the summer to about $150.

The 29-year-old executive said if all goes well Signature Homes, a production home-building company owned by his parents, may participate in the Southern Nevada Green Building Partnership to design and build green homes.

"Signature Custom Homes is honored to be the first home builder to sign up for this green-building program. We want to be part of this locally based effort that's bringing green building to residential construction in our community," Plaster said.

The young man said he grew up in an environmentally conscious family. He decided to sign up for the Green Building Partnership because he's been interested in green building since he worked for a home builder in Austin, Texas after graduating college. Austin is regarded as one of the capitals of green building in the United States, and Plaster toured many homes under construction that were using green-building technology. When the Green Building Partnership guidelines were released in October 2006, Plaster said, he realized the program was the potential way to get involved in green building.

His parents founded Signature Homes in Las Vegas in 1978. The family added Signature Custom Homes, which builds five to 10 custom homes a year, in 1999. Signature Homes builds about 200 to 300 homes annually.

The two green custom homes are in the design phase; the larger home is being designed by the architectural firm of James Heimler, Architect Inc. of Tarzana, Calif. Signature Custom Homes' in-house design team is handling the other home, Plaster said.

"We are pleased that Signature Custom Homes and the Plaster family have taken the historic step to sign up as the first home builders participating in the Southern Nevada Green Building Partnership," said SNHBA Executive Director Irene Porter.

SNHBA, which represents nearly 700 members working in all facets of the local home-building industry, will administer the local Green Building Partnership. The group is an affiliate of the National Association of Home Builders, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association.

The local program guidelines were developed by the 18-member Green Building Committee of SNHBA and the GBI. The committee, which included home builders, energy consultants, energy-related companies, local governments and utility companies, worked on the partnership for about a year. It was unveiled in June 2005, with the partnership's green building guidelines released in October 2006. The 10-page program requirements were customized to meet the special conditions of the Southern Nevada environment.

The Green Building Partnership will provide home builders the technical expertise to use the program's guidelines; administer an impartial, third-party inspection and verify that the program guidelines have been met in the design and construction of a home and issue certification that a home has been constructed to the program's green-building requirements. Third-party inspections and verifications are conducted by companies that have specific training and specialize in the area of environmentally sensitive construction technology.

The partnership's goal is to direct the efficient use of resources, materials, energy and water; maximize the indoor environmental quality in new housing; and educate homeowners about the operation and maintenance of a green home.

"The GBI applauds the Southern Nevada Green Building Partnership and Signature Custom Homes for their commitment to support growth in residential green building," said Kelly O'Brien, director of residential programs for the GBI. "Their dedication sets an example for builders across Nevada to further accelerate the adoption of green built homes."

"Although homes built today are 100 percent more energy-efficient than housing built during the 1970s, the goal of bringing a verifiable, certifiable green-building program to our community is to raise the bar on energy conservation and the efficient use of our finite resources. We believe the home-building industry is already playing a vital role in that effort," Porter said. "We have members who have continually shown their dedication to the principles of green building as evidenced by their commitment to the Energy Star and Water Smart Homes programs. (Energy Star is a voluntary, energy-conservation program of the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the home-building industry; Water Smart Homes was established by SNHBA and the Southern Nevada Water Authority as a water-conservation program.)