Today's Housing Model Is Unsustainable for the Long Haul

That may seem unthinkable, but life without a car because all of one's needs are within walking distance can be liberating, Kemp said.

"Not only do you save time -- all those hours spent in commuting traffic -- you also save money, about $7,000 a year."

When the no-car lifestyle includes good mass transit, it can be especially liberating for parents because their children can become independent years before they are old enough to get a driver's license.

More Americans have experienced the no-car lifestyle than you might think. Many lived that way when they were in college. Think back to your student days when you lived on or near campus and walked everywhere.

Regardless of the advantages of urban living, however, most home buyers are unconvinced. They still want the house and the car. But their lifestyle will be more sustainable if they are willing to accept higher density -- for example, a rowhouse on an urban infill site. Fewer resources are required to build a community because the developer can tie into existing road and utility networks. And, with party walls, the houses consume less energy for heating and cooling. When a community is on a mass-transit line and has shopping within walking distance, the household may not need to use a car every day.

Transforming the American dream from the single-family house and yard to a more environmentally sustainable, energy-saving vision of rowhouses with small yards and larger, shared outdoor areas will not happen overnight. But the most critical piece of our sustainability problem, drastically reducing our energy consumption by as much as 50 percent, can be addressed immediately.

Land developers could take a leading role by adding community-wide energy savings to their usual concerns with land acquisition, land planning and infrastructure, said Jonathan Philips, a developer with Cherokee Investment Partners in Raleigh, N. C. For example, he said: "You don't always have to have an equal number of properties facing east, west, south and north. There is no reason why you can't have most houses face south, southwest or southeast so that passive solar heating, which captures the free warmth of the sun, could be incorporated into their design."

A developer can also provide community-wide energy savings if he takes advantage of the logistics at a project's initial stage and does things that usually are left to individual builders, Philips said. Before construction begins, large and cumbersome equipment can easily move through an entire subdivision, so that, for example, the exterior portion of a ground source heat pump can be installed for every house at far less cost. For a 2,400-square-foot house, the cost drops from about $13,000 to about $4,000.

A ground-source heat pump takes advantage of the stable temperature of the earth to provide both heating and cooling. A homeowner's annual operating cost can be as much as 70 percent less than the cost to operate a conventional furnace and air conditioning system.

Many climate-tailored strategies for reducing a household's energy use are widely available, but they haven't been widely used because home builders are skittish. In the past, when builders responded to exhortations for energy efficiencies that exceed local requirements, most buyers were uninterested and unwilling to pay extra. But home builders will immediately jump on the bandwagon when they are convinced that buyers have decided that a cooler planet for their grandchildren is a higher priority than a granite countertop today.

Developers, builders and architects can take residential energy efficiency only so far, however. Heating, cooling and hot water on average use only about 53 percent of the total energy consumption. The remaining 47 percent is consumed by the appliances, lights and other fixtures. This can be significantly reduced by purchasing Energy Star equipment when possible and by using more efficient lighting such as compact florescent bulbs.

Homeowners can also help to reduce carbon fuel emissions by purchasing renewable energy. Many utilities now offer their customers the option of buying slightly more expensive electricity generated by wind, solar or hydropower. The latest generation of wind turbines is so efficient that wind farms off the East or West coasts or across the Great Plains could supply enough electricity for the entire country.

That seemingly futuristic scenario many come sooner than you think. At a recent news conference, Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute said that the cost of wind-generated power is now competitive with conventionally produced electricity.

Katherine Salant can be reached through her Web site (http://www.katherinesalant.com)

© 2006, Katherine Salant

Distributed by Inman News Features