Pardee Homes ups green pledge

Pardee Homes announces the companywide expansion of its LivingSmart brand, a program with standard and optional measures that boost energy efficiency, save water, improve indoor air quality and encourage material conservation and the use of recycled or sustainable resources in new homes. The multiregional homebuilder and community developer has test-marketed LivingSmart since 2001 as part of its pursuit of greener, more sustainable building and development.

Company President and Chief Executive Officer Michael McGee said buyers of a new home from Pardee Homes could look forward to lower energy and water bills, healthier indoor air and greater indoor comfort.

"Saving money, promoting health, improving comfort and using resources efficiently are virtues we can all relate to," said McGee. "LivingSmart brings practical, tangible rewards to our homebuyers and defines our commitment to conserve water, land and energy."

Longtime Las Vegans Bob and Ty Walsh bought their home six years ago in Vista Verde, the first local showcase for Pardee's LivingSmart program that was also available to homebuyers in Nevada Trails. With features such as a radiant roof barrier system to deflect the desert heat and low e2 windows, the Walsh family stays comfortable all year round.

"In these times and in this climate, nothing is smarter than energy efficiency," said Bob Walsh, a former television newsman and gubernatorial assistant who is deputy to Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller.

LivingSmart is a key component of Pardee Homes' progressive, incremental improvements in green design and construction and sustainable development. Begun in 1998, this program continues to include painstaking research into products, systems, quality control and research to determine what homebuyers want in green -- and what they feel they can afford.

"Great programs must be tempered with feasibility in the production housing framework," McGee said. "We have maintained this dual focus since introducing our first energy-efficient homes and it has paid off with greener homes that are still competitively priced."

LivingSmart provides standard materials, systems and features with EnergySmart, EarthSmart, WaterSmart and HealthSmart advantages. To these buyers can add such features as photovoltaic systems for in-home solar power, whole-house water filtration, tankless water heaters, bamboo flooring and lyptus cabinets. Optional features vary by home and neighborhood.

McGee said LivingSmart reinforces the company's move toward more sustainable community planning. Demonstrated in many of its master plans, this features open space and tree preservation, habitat restoration and indigenous, drought tolerant landscaping.

A pioneer in green building, Pardee was the first regional builder to commit to building energy-efficient homes in Southern Nevada in 1998.

Since then, Pardee Homes has earned top honors for its green and sustainable achievements, including being named Production Home Builder of the Year in NAHB's Green Building and Energy, Value Housing 2006 Awards; and Green Project of the Year from the National Green Building Conference in 2004.

Pardee also built the Ultimate Family Home -- a zero-energy home -- for the 2004 International Builders Show in Las Vegas.