Global Green USA: Lakewood/Miller Reed Corner Case Study

The Street Where Dreams Come True: Corner of Lakewood Avenue and Miller Reed Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia

From Blueprint for Greening Affordable Housing, by Global Green USA; published by Island Press, 2007.

Since Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1976, it has built over 150,000 homes in the United States and over 80 other countries. Relying principally on volunteers who donate their labor to construct the house, Habitat’s “sweat equity” model provides housing for families who commit to contributing hundreds of hours of their own labor into building their homes, and the homes of others. Homes are funded by donations of cash and building materials, and the residents’ zero-interest mortgage payments help build still more Habitat homes. Residents pay their own utilities.

In early 2002, Habitat for Humanity’s Atlanta affiliate created a small green community by building seven single-family, single-story bungalows on an abandoned, overgrown lot in just nine weeks. (Two additional homes were built a short time later; their lots were used for staging construction of the first seven homes.) One of this project’s goals was to integrate a green homes certification process into Atlanta Habitat’s existing building practices, exposing a large number of volunteers to green building practices and learning lessons for future application. Since 2004, all homes built by Atlanta Habitat have been EarthCraft certified, including those in a mixed-income, 41-home subdivision under construction in southeast Atlanta.

Atlanta Habitat is the largest builder of homes for low and very-low income families in Atlanta. It is not only among the most prolific among Habitat affiliates (900 homes to date), but one of the furthest along in building green homes. This is in part attributable to Atlanta Habitat’s close working relationship with Southface Energy Institute, an Atlanta-based organization that promotes sustainable, energy efficient building in the southeastern U.S. The EarthCraft House program, founded in 1999 by the Greater Atlanta Home Builder’s Association and Southface, is a point-based system that provides guidelines for the construction of healthy, comfortable homes that protect the environment and reduce utility bills. Ray Maynard, Atlanta Habitat’s Director of Construction, has been working with Southface for 12 years, continuously introducing new green techniques to Habitat Atlanta’s building process. Atlanta Habitat set a goal of building 100 percent EarthCraft-certified homes by 2004. For the 2002 “Street Where Dreams Come True” project, Atlanta Habitat partnered with Southface to ensure that Habitat staff would become trained to build EarthCraft certified homes in the future (and oversee volunteers in doing so as well). The homes also qualified as Energy Star homes after meeting strict guidelines for energy efficiency set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

This project educated all involved on how to build in a greener way. Constituencies included homebuyers who contributed sweat equity by helping to build their homes, as well as Atlanta Habitat staff and volunteers who participated in the process. Instead of building one home at a time, approximately 2,000 volunteers donated thousands of hours over nine weeks to construct the entire community. Each home was sponsored by a corporation or other organization. Southface collaborated with The Home Depot to develop the energy saving design, using off-the-shelf products found at home improvement stores.

The homes were built on a vacant lot in a challenged South Atlanta neighborhood; another of the project’s goals was to help revitalize the neighborhood. (Atlanta Habitat committed to building 50 affordable homes in the larger South Atlanta area, including this project.) In reflecting on this experience, Maynard explained, “The Street Where Dreams Come True” showed us that we could do it…that we had the expertise and ability to make green building happen. So when we considered building all EarthCraft-certified homes in 2004, it wasn’t a difficult decision. We stepped into it easily based on our accumulated experience, and with encouragement and the full support of Southface Energy Institute.”

Green Achievements

Saving Energy through Incremental Improvements: One of the project’s goals was to reduce residents’ water, gas and electric bills by 30 percent in comparison with standard construction homes in the area. In order to keep costs as low as possible, Atlanta Habitat pursued many small, volunteer-friendly initiatives that incrementally increased energy performance rather than focusing on bigger-ticket items that individually save more energy. Actions such as focusing on improving airtightness, locating ducts in an intelligent way, and working to eliminate drafts aren’t necessarily exciting, but get good results. For example, the living space directly beneath the pull-down attic stairs is often drafty. To minimize the heat gain/loss caused by leakage in this area, an insulated box with a sealed but operable lid was installed over the opening, a simple step but one that is rarely done. Air filtration was reduced via numerous actions, including a focus on sealing locations where different elements of the building come in contact with each other, such as OSB decking and the bottom wall plate, mud sills and outside bands, etc. In addition, every penetration of the building envelope (where wires or pipes pass through it) was sealed with caulk or expandable foam.

Greening the Site: The site design was constrained by the fact that the land had already been platted, so could not fully take into account solar access, shading, or natural lighting. However, homes were built far enough apart to allow access to sunlight, and all trees outside the building footprints were preserved to provide shading for houses and HVAC equipment. During construction, each house was protected by installing fencing around the trees’ drip lines. Also, ground cover on the back part of each lot was preserved during construction, to help minimize groundwater runoff, and silt fences were installed around the perimeter of each lot.

The back of the site is adjacent to a recycling company, which formerly owned the road as well. To create a buffer between the two uses, Atlanta Habitat dug up a crumbling abandoned road and planted 350 seedlings to create a 17,000 square foot long-term natural visual buffer and improve air quality. Houses were sited as close to the front as the code permitted, to provide as much land as possible in the back for the green space. (The recycling company also installed and paid for a privacy fence.)

Recycling Construction Materials: Significant efforts were made to conserve and recycle construction materials wherever feasible. A tub grinder was used to recycle various building materials on-site. Ground-up shingles, durable fiber cement siding and concrete blocks were placed so they would provide a base for the newly poured concrete driveway. Wood grindings were used for landscaping mulch, and drywall was added to yard dirt. Wood scraps longer than four feet were returned to the warehouse to make various components such as spacer blocks for framing, deadwood, mail box posts, and decorative elements for the front porches. In addition, all steel and aluminum scraps, and cardboard packaging were recycled.

Excerpted from Global Green USA’s Blueprint for Greening Affordable Housing, edited by Walker Wells with Ted Bardacke, Pamela Cepe, Jenifer Seal Cramer, Lisa McManigal Delaney, and Miriam Landman. Foreword by Matt Petersen. Copyright © 2007 by Island Press. Excerpted by permission of Island Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.