Company Breaks New Ground on Eco-Friendly Practices
ATLANTA–(BUSINESS WIRE)– In communities across the country, PulteGroup is incorporating eco-friendly practices into home building, offering long-term benefits to both consumers and the environment. Through the development and evaluation of innovative green initiatives, the Company is integrating new technologies that deliver greater energy efficiency, leverage green products, and put sustainability into everyday practice at communities across the country.
“Our goal is to offer consumers the powerful combination of quality, affordability, and sustainability,” said Ryan Marshall, PulteGroup president and CEO. “We are routinely testing new ideas and initiatives and, working with our valued trade partners, are applying what we learn to incorporate green, efficient, cost-competitive solutions in our communities.”
Altus at the Quarter – In Atlanta, Pulte Homes is partnering on the development of Atlanta’s first Smart Neighborhood™ at the Altus at the Quarter community. The first phase of this project, which is in partnership with Georgia Power, brings 46 technologically advanced townhomes to Atlanta’s Upper West Side, with the model grand opening in July 2019.
The Smart Neighborhood technology includes rooftop solar panels, in-home battery energy storage, and enhanced energy-efficient building features throughout, including improved insulation, advanced heating and cooling systems, LED lighting and a higher efficiency electric heat pump water heater. All homes will include PulteGroup’s Smart Home offering, allowing homeowners to choose options which give them the ability to seamlessly control their lights, thermostat, security systems, appliances and more with just the touch of their cell phone or the sound of their voice. In addition to making life easier for PulteGroup homebuyers, studies have shown that smart home technology can reduce costs and enhance overall energy efficiency.
Through this project and the collaboration with Georgia Power, PulteGroup continues to learn about building energy-efficient homes more cost-effectively, while shrinking the homes’ carbon footprint and making them less expensive to own.
Parkside at Babcock Ranch – Near Fort Myers, FL, Pulte Homes is proud to be part of the environmentally innovative Babcock Ranch master-planned development, the country’s first fully-solar town, powered entirely by over 300,000 solar panels in one of the largest Solar Farms in North America. Modern “smart grid” digital electric distribution technologies embedded in the town’s infrastructure optimize energy efficiency and lower utility costs. With its expansive green spaces and waterfront areas, hiking trails and preserves, and developed areas located where they have the least impact on natural systems, sustainability is at the heart of this smart city.
Pulte homes in Babcock Ranch are all built to Florida Green Building Coalition standards, emphasizing energy and water conservation, and offer a full gigabyte of fiber-optic connectivity. Landscaping uses native, non-invasive trees and plants, plus 100 percent use of reclaimed water for irrigation. With prices starting from the low $200s, Pulte has been able to effectively balance constructability, quality and cost to give more consumers the option to choose an eco-friendly community.
Zero Net Energy (ZNE) Home – In Northern California, the revolutionary Zero Net Energy home built in Brentwood, CA in 2016 has continued to provide data monitoring and key performance information in California’s quest for ZNE compliance. The demonstration program, aimed at building new homes to achieve maximum energy efficiency and utility grid load reduction, allowed Pulte to test the technologies that can reduce overall energy use, while also determining the construction practices needed to deliver these homes with superior quality, at high volumes and in a cost-efficient manner.
The Pulte ZNE home prototype combined near-airtight building methods, highly efficient insulation, HVAC, lighting technologies and more, with on-site solar energy production to offset the home’s energy consumption. Pulte continues to apply lessons learned from its participation in the demonstration project through the creation of best practices for the Company in building more energy-efficient homes in California communities and across the country.
“We continue to build our knowledge base through these types of projects, allowing us to develop better processes to build homes for the future,” Marshall said. “Not only do consumers benefit from the opportunity to make their homes more energy efficient and smarter, but the environment will continue to gain from our actions to reduce the eco-footprint of our homes and communities.”
To learn more about PulteGroup’s sustainability initiatives, click HERE.
About PulteGroup, Inc.
PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE: PHM), based in Atlanta, is one of America’s largest homebuilding companies with operations in approximately 50 markets throughout the country. Through its brand portfolio that includes Centex, Pulte Homes, Del Webb, DiVosta Homes and John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods, the company is one of the industry’s most versatile homebuilders able to meet the needs of multiple buyer groups and respond to changing consumer demand. PulteGroup conducts extensive research to provide homebuyers with innovative solutions and consumer-inspired homes and communities to make lives better.
For more information about PulteGroup, Inc. and PulteGroup brands, go to pultegroupinc.com; www.pulte.com; www.centex.com; www.delwebb.com; www.divosta.com and ww.jwhomes.com. Follow PulteGroup, Inc. on Twitter: @PulteGroupNews.
