These days, a “green” home more often than not refers to a building that’s eco-friendly, which makes a positive contribution to the environment or at least has only a minimal negative impact.
There’s no single characteristic that makes a home green. As a general rule of thumb, it’s easier for a home to be “green” if it’s designed that way when it’s built.
Historically, Texas has not been known as one of the more environmentally-friendly states. However, new regulations are being enacted to jumpstart green construction practices in various parts of the Lone Star State. If you wish to live in a green home in Texas, make sure to check out the various green home builders listed in this article.
What Is A Green Home?
Green homes encompass environmental consideration and resource efficiency in every stage of the development and building process to reduce environmental impact.
The house’s design, construction, and operation need to focus on resource-efficient building materials and design, water and energy efficiency, and indoor environmental quality. In addition, it should factor in the house’s overall impact on the environment.
Several technologies and processes that go into a green home occur behind the scenes. So, what should you look for?
Energy-Efficient Features
A lot of the energy-efficient features of a green home are easily identifiable. For example, windows, water heating systems, and appliances will probably have ENERGY STAR® ratings. In addition, the house should also entail efficient bulbs and lighting fixtures.
Water-Efficient Features
Appliances and fixtures like low-flow faucets, toilets, showerheads, ENERGY STAR® washing machines, and dishwashers all conserve water. Low-volume and programmed rainwater collection and irrigation systems also help save water.
Resource-Efficient Features
The house design and orientation should use natural daylight to minimize lighting needs and strategies to minimize heat gain during summers and heat loss during the winter.
The home should contain renewable materials, such as swiftly renewing wood species like bamboo and recycled content materials in tiles, concrete, and carpets formulations.
Top 11 Green Home Builders in Texas
Here is a list we’ve constructed of the top green home builders in the state.
Go Green Custom Homes
Go Green Custom Homes was started by Jared and Jacob Gautreau, who have been constructing custom homes for almost 17 years. As a custom home builder, the company’s mission is to always prioritize craftsmanship and quality.
Go Green Custom follows a 5-step process that includes an introduction meeting, lot visit, plan design, estimate, and construction contract. This process helps ensure that all your wants and needs are addressed in the best possible way.
Go Green Custom Homes are certified green builders that understand the benefits eco-friendly building offers to their clients and to the Earth. The company’s motto has always been “Keeping the Hill Country Green“.
From foam insulation, high-seer HVAC equipment, and rainwater harvesting to ENERGY STAR® appliances, energy-efficient lighting, and energy-efficient windows, the company always strives to build the most energy-efficient project while keeping costs in mind.
Build NATiVE
Build NATiVE is an award-winning local company specializing in high-performance, beautiful construction and net-zero building in Austin and the surrounding hill country.
Whether you’re making significant renovations on an existing home with energy-efficient upgrades, constructing a sustainable commercial building, or simply looking for a new custom house, Build NATiVE offers the highest degree of customer experience in Texas.
Build NATiVE is a local industry expert, with professionals skilled in a number of green building technologies and techniques, entailing in-house renewable energy experts.
The company is unique in the number of services it offers, which allows it to take a holistic approach when guiding you in every aspect of green building.
Therma Star Sustainable Homes
Another great green home builder in Texas is Therma Star Sustainable Homes, a company changing the way houses are constructed. Therma Star uses green technology from across the globe to build eco-friendly and energy-efficient homes.
The company offers two distinct kinds of green homes, namely sustainable and responsible homes.
Sustainable homes are those built to last for generations with low ownership and maintenance costs. The homes cost less to live in with lower insurance costs and utility bills. Sustainable houses will last without needing significant structural repair due to insects, pests, or weather for generations.
On the other hand, its responsible homes are constructed using environmentally-friendly techniques to use natural resources responsibly and minimize the impact on the environment. The company uses widely available, renewable products that last longer and are much more robust through green technology. Therma Star Sustainable Homes building techniques minimize the construction waste by up to 98 percent! Its sustainable homes use the most up-to-date cooling and heating technologies and offer higher insulation value than conventional construction to reduce energy consumption by 75 percent.
Some of the standard features of houses built by Therma Star Sustainable Homes include:
- Wheelchair accessible hallways and doors
- 10-foot ceilings
- Water-conserving sanitary fixtures
- Low and native water landscaping (Xeriscaping)
- Outlets on upper patios
- Polished concrete floors
- Corner eves outlets for holiday decorations or security lights
- Extra outlets in kitchen and pantries
- Electrical outlet near toilers to enable additional features for home medical devices and personal hygiene
- DecoCrete Stone countertops
All in all, Thermal Star Sustainable Homes offers a comprehensive client experience that entails seamless communication, staffing, on-site organization, budgeting, and premium-quality handiwork each an every time.
Pyramid Homes
Pyramid Homes specializes in building energy-efficient, comfortable, smart, and healthy homes.
Pyramid Homes’ team includes a certified green professional to design and build an energy-efficient green home to match your needs and lifestyle. The company is a trusted green builder in Longview and Tyler, and the surrounding areas.
You can choose from one of the custom houses for sale, build in one of their neighborhoods, or build on your land in and around Bullard, Longview, Tyler, or surrounding areas in East Texas.
Even today, Pyramid Homes demonstrates leadership in residential home building development through responsiveness, superior craftsmanship, and design innovation to cater to the needs of its customers. In addition, all of its homes are green and are constructed in accordance with the National Green Building Standard.
From the countertops up to the ceiling and back down to the floor, Pyramid homes encompass thousands of dollars in energy-saving and luxury features at a price that was unmatchable in your new Green home.
Younger Homes
Younger Homes takes pride in building beautiful, sustainable, and energy-efficient custom homes in the heart of the Texas Hill Country and Prairie. They incorporate value engineering and integrated design throughout the lifecycle of the project.
Integrated design is a continuous process that takes into account the holistic integration of several disciplines to attain a high-performance, energy-efficient home at a competitive cost.
Integrated design starts early in the lifecycle of home design. It is concerned with property selection, use of natural resources, indoor environmental quality, architectural design, site planning, integrating key stakeholders in the design process, and public and community health impacts.
Integrated design allows for the building of sustainable homes—homes that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
As an industry leader in green home construction, Younger Homes constantly pushes towards preservation and innovation. The company believes all homes need to be sustainable, safe, and affordable.
Located 30 miles outside of Austin, the family-operated custom home builders work to make a sustainable and healthy lifestyle accessible to everyone. It uses innovative, elegant, and proven green building technology and proactive implementation of green building codes to protect and enhance natural resources, public health, and the scenic beauty of the Texas Hill Country and Prairie.
Verde Builder Custom Homes
Verde Builders creates energy-efficient and intelligent home designs throughout the Greater Austin area. The company specializes in projects that encompass energy-efficient methods and state-of-the-art technology to build a home that’s sustainable, eco-friendly, and requires a lower homeownership cost.
SmartHouse Design™ equips your home with the following features:
- Air purification systems
- Concrete-finished floors
- DVR camera security: smartphone access
- Energy Star appliances™
- Energy Star windows™
- iPad-controlled home automation – lighting, thermostat, security, door locks, smoke detectors
- Low or no-VOC materials
- Native Texas Xeriscaping
- Natural gas systems
- Natural light utilization
- Ozone Water Purification System
- Rainwater harvesting
- Solar system pre-wiring
- Spray foam insulation
- Tankless water heaters
- Water-efficient appliances
Southern Green Builders
Southern Green Builders uses both time-tested building principles and contemporary technologies to build custom and energy-efficient homes. The company offers its services in the following areas of Houston:
- Afton Oaks
- Bellaire
- Bunker Hill Village
- Garden Oaks/ Oak Forest
- Hedwig Village
- The Heights
- Hilshire Village
- Hunters Creek Village
- Memorial
- Meyerland
- Montrose
- Norhill
- Piney Point Village
- Southside Place
- Spring Branch
- Spring Valley
- Timbergrove
- West University Place
Sustainable Homes of Texas
Sustainable Homes, Inc. is owned and operated by the McMaster family. Co-founder Darrel McMaster has been constructing homes for almost forty-four years—he hails from a family that has been part of the home manufacturing industry ever since 1946.
In 2006, Darrel started building houses that would run off its environmental surroundings. He was able to obtain performance details to minimize power consumption to 70 percent of a conventionally-built home.
Today, Sustainable Homes has become the leader in constructing completely sustainable homes. Over the past three years, Sustainable Homes has manufactured more than 50 percent of the top-scoring verified homes in Texas and 10 percent nationally.
Its most recent net-zero energy house has set an even better benchmark for energy efficiency, utilizing the following features:
- 100 percent rainwater utilization for all household water requirements
- Geothermal HVAC
- On-site wastewater/aerobic septic system
- Improved solar array for powering electric vehicles.
Ferrier Custom Homes
Ferrier Companies is a family-owned, custom design-build firm serving the Dallas-Fort Worth area and beyond. The company designs and constructs your custom home project to be significantly more water and energy-efficient so that you can save precious resources. The company also pursues widespread change in the industry by creating a path to sustainability that others can follow.
Ferrier Custom Homes designs and builds all of its projects with its clients’ well-being, personal values, and comfort in mind. From low-VOC paints to tankless water heaters, and sustainable flooring materials to meeting Zero Energy Ready Home™ requirements, the team carefully considers how every detail fits into the bigger picture of assisting its clients in prospering without waste.
Sustainable Structures of Texas
Sustainable Structures of Texas prides itself in using green building materials, recyclables, and the latest eco-friendly and sustainable processes.
The company is just as concerned with solar orientation, advanced framing techniques, proven construction science, and lean construction methods that promote efficiency, durability, sound building practices, and indoor environmental quality.
So, whether you are building an environmentally-friendly custom home to an architect’s stringent specifications, constructing a high-performance office complex for LEED® certification, or planning a project to reduce its impact on natural ecosystems, Sustainable Structures of Texas can surely meet your needs.
The company’s approach to structure and high-efficiency technology allows you to enjoy increased savings on your utility bills, along with a smaller carbon footprint.
Green Homebuilders
Green Homebuilders builds beautiful custom green homes in San Antonio. It uses a practical, “whole-house approach” to building long-lasting, comfortable, environmentally responsible, and energy-efficient new green homes in the San Antonio area.
The company has assembled the new home industry’s most reliable products, many from sustainable and recycled sources that offer the highest available quality.
Green Homebuilders utilizes the latest construction installation techniques and building science to make sure that all the systems and parts are assembled to work efficiently with each other.
Wrapping Up
Investing in your new green home is a significant commitment. However, there are plenty of green home builders in Texas for you if you wish to experience everything that green living has to offer.
These home builders are an excellent starting point for families and individuals ready to design, build, and live in their own green homes.
Hello Erin, thanks for sharing these amazing collection with us.