YouthBuild USA Green Initiative
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Since 1994, over 96,000 YouthBuild students across the country have the great pride of having built over 18,000 units of affordable housing—the comfort of thousands of families in their communities and the incarnation of the rebuilding of their own lives. A force for youth and community transformation, YouthBuild is becoming a national leader in improving the affordability, quality, and environmental impact of affordable home construction and rennovation— the source of two-fifths of national energy consumption and extensive greenhouse gas emissions.
America's construction industry has already undergone significant change in the interest of increased energy efficiency, the use of renewable energy, and more responsible environmental practices, capturing as much as 10% of the national market. The impending surge of a clean energy economy provides great opportunity for YouthBuild graduates to gain access to rewarding careers as new products, technology, and methods emerge in construction related industries. YouthBuild programs also benefit from the increasing demand for weatherization and other energy services, sustainable landscaping, deconstruction, and green building.
The worst environmental quality and health impacts continue to be located in impoverished communities and communities of color that already receive the least amount of resources for environmental protection and limited pathways out of poverty for their youth. YouthBuild USA's Green Initiative supports YouthBuild programs that are committed to unlocking the untapped energy and intellegence of disconnected young adults who want to reverse the disparity by seeking employment and education in the solutions to economic, environmental, and social problems.
The Green Initiative provides YouthBuild programs with technical assistance, training, funding, publications, research and other supports that assist YouthBuild programs exersice their leadership in environmental responsibility.
YouthBuild USA Green Business Initiative
YouthBuild USA has launched the Green Business Initiative in response to interest from programs in revenue generating opportunities, desire of graduates to start their own businesses, and growing national interest and investment in greening our homes businesses and lives. Green Business Initiative staff will circulate success stories and expertise within the YouthBuild community and provide support to enable programs and graduates to take on revenue generating, job creating, green business opportunities.
YouthBuild USA is currently looking for programs and graduates that are operating or interested in revenue generating business ventures. If your venture is green, may be green, or could be greened, we want to hear from you. We are seeking candidates for funding and technical assistance that could support growing, starting, or greening your venture. We also want to highlight good examples from the YouthBuild community that programs or alumni may be able to learn from. Please contact the YouthBuild Green Business Initiative, green@youthbuild.org for more information.
Green Collar Career Pathways
YouthBuild USA has facilitated the involvement of New England programs in environmental education, training and awareness building since 1998 through a partnership with Eagle Eye Institute. Eagle Eye is dedicated to developing and disseminating innovative environmental education programs that transform the lives of urban youth. Eagle Eye provides hands-on exploratory learning on the envirnomental and career bridging to natural resource fields to underserved youth. 
Six YouthBuild Programs were selected in 2005 to participate in a three-year Green Industry Career Pathways demonstration project in partnership with Eagle Eye and The Trustees of Reservations. This partnership provides hands-on outdoor learning and introductions to careers in natural resource fields led by local industry professionals. Some of the industry skills the professional volunteers teach the YouthBuild students include tree climbing, pruning, wild-land fire fighting, horticulture, aerial lift equipment, chainsaw certification, and other tools of green space trades such as arboriculture, landscaping, and forest management.
This project resulted in the introduction of over 500 YouthBuild students to careers in the green industries, 25 of which secured internships and jobs following graduation.
Green Affordable Housing
With funding from The Home Depot Foundation in 2005, the YouthBuild Green Initiative provided training and technical assistance to over 90 construction and executive staff from 64 YouthBuild programs across the country, produced the green building guide Shades of Green, a resource manual YouthBuild Green Pages, circulated five case studies of YouthBuild green building practitioners in YouthBuild Innovations, and conducted a benchmark survey that collected detailed information on the construction practices of 65 YouthBuild programs.
In 2007, with the support of Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Renewable Energy Trust, YouthBuild USA completed six Green Design Charrettes in MA to accelerate their green building performance and prepare them to install solar electric systems.
In 2008, the YouthBuild Green Initiative received support from the Wal-Mart Foundation to train staff from YouthBuild programs towards a national goal of building 50 units of green affordable housing while opening up career pathways for YouthBuild graduates in the green industries. Several of the YouthBuild programs we support are in the process of establishing or have established training programs in renewable energy, brownsfield remediation, deconstruction and materials reuse, weatherization and energy auditing, arboriculture and forest management.
American YouthWorks is our primary green building trainer and sponsor of Casa Verde YouthBuild, in Austin TX. The young people of Casa Verde YouthBuild have built over 90 quality homes for low-income families, each receiving a 4-5 STAR rating from Austin Energy’s Green Builder Program. They have been recognized locally and nationally by PEPNet, HUD, Home Builders Magazine, the American Institute of Architects, and NAHB. Also, Casa Verde YouthBuild was featured as a case study in "A Blueprint for Greening Affordable Housing: Developers Guidelines for Resource Efficiency and Sustainable Communities" by Global Green USA, which was used at The Home Depot Foundation's Greening Affordable Housing Symposium.
Q: What is Green Building?
A: Green Building is a comprehensive approach to constructing and renovating buildings that conserves the earth’s natural resources through the efficient and intelligent use of energy, materials, water, and the building site, thereby having powerful impacts on the health of local and global environments. Green buildings provide their occupants with comfortable surroundings and healthy indoor environments.
Green Building is most successful when it is done using a whole-systems approach that integrates both design and construction techniques, an approach that engages all members of the building team to maximize efficiency throughout all construction phases and through proper maintenance of building systems and equipment.
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Q: Are there any widely accepted standards that define Green Building?
A: In 1993, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system, a voluntary consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable commercial buildings. LEED’s efforts have been paralleled and sometimes preceded by regional and local efforts to green buildings, most often housing. Since 1992, over 80 municipal and state green rating programs have been developed, and while there is a great deal of variation in the structure and administration of these programs, most of them focus on residential buildings, usually single-family homes. In addition, the U.S. EPA and DOE’s Energy Star Homes (www.energystarhomes.com) and the National Association of Homebuilders (www.nahb.org) have both developed national standards by which greenness can be measured and compared.
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Q: What benefits does Green Building produce?
A: Benefits to YouthBuild Builders and subsequent homeowners resulting from the consideration of environmental and sustainability impacts in the construction of affordable housing are diverse and potentially very significant. They range as follows:
- Increased affordability through lower operating costs recovered via lower utility costs and maintenance requirements
- Improved indoor and ambient air quality
- Lower water use
- Enhanced comfort and durability
- Increased property value
- Multi-stakeholder processes that encourage the involvement of neighborhood residents in the planning, design, and implementation phases and make private or public developers aware of and sensitive to local needs and plans
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Q: How much more do Green Buildings cost and are they appropriate for affordable housing?
A: A common perception has been that green building costs more and is, therefore, not suitable for affordable housing. The good news is that this perception in not entirely true. Of course there are alternative materials and technologies that if used would add significant costs to a building, but there are also techniques a builder can utilize that cost nothing, or even have the potential to save on construction costs. For example, Optimal Value Engineering (OVE) is a stick framing technique that reduces the use of dimensional lumber, and can save a builder 20-32% in framing costs. Another example of a no-cost green building technique is the installation of ductwork in the building’s conditioned space. This simple low- to no-cost procedure can make a huge impact on energy savings.
Most recent studies of the costs and benefits of green building have been encouraging to skeptics. According to research by Capital E and the U.S. Green Building Council, the average premium for green building is lightly less than 2%, but the financial benefits are ten times as large. Another report by Air Quality Services, finds that first cost comes in between zero and three percent. These reports show that green buildings have a modest initial cost premium, but that long-term benefits far exceed the incremental capital costs.
Specific to the affordable housing sector, a new publication by New Ecology Inc. and The Green CDCs Initiative studies green affordable housing projects around the country and conducts detailed case study analyses of the costs and benefits of sixteen projects. Total development costs for the green projects reviewed in this report ranged from 18% below to 9% above the costs for comparable conventional affordable housing. The projects that were able to reduce their overall building costs by building green were mostly able to do so because green building and the use of renewable energy gave them access to rebates and other incentives. On average, the sixteen case studies show a small "green premium" of 2.42% in total development costs. These incremental costs are largely due to increased construction (as opposed to design) costs.
Further analysis of these case studies led to several key findings, including:
- Community development corporations (CDCs) and other mission-driven community-based organizations are natural leaders in the effort to build green affordable housing.
- The current system to assess financial viability of green affordable housing, focused on initial capital costs, is deeply flawed. Life-cycle costing in which both capital and operating costs are considered over the expected life of a building provides a better understanding of project economics.
- Using a life-cycle approach, green affordable housing is more cost effective in net present value (NPV) terms than conventional affordable housing.
- The existing financing system for affordable housing is complex and rigid, and typically does not recognize the long-term value of green investments. This serves as an impediment to widespread development of green affordable housing.
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Q: How can I learn more?
A: The Getting Started button at www.ybshadesofgreen.org has practical guidance for those planning to undertake green building projects. Locate a local green building council or green business if one exists in your area and ask them to make a presentation to your staff and students. If your program receives funding from DOL and you have been assigned an FPO, inquire with that person. Lastly, email green@youthbuild.org for additional assistance and to receive the latest news.
YouthBuild Green Initiative Publications
- Shades of Green: A Green Building Guide for YouthBuild Affiliates. Available in print from the YouthBuild USA online store. www.ybshadesofgreen.org
- YouthBuild Green Pages: A Green Building Resource Manual. Available in YouthBuild USA's Knowledge Bank when you login and go to the Green Initiative collection.
- Green Service Edition. YouthBuild Bulletin, Summer 2009
- YouthBuild Boston leverages green building practices to enhance employability of graduates and expand local partnerships. Innovations, Issue 30, February 2007
- YouthBuild Brockton uses Energy Star guidelines to promote green building. Innovations, Issue 29, January 2007
- YouthBuild Guadalupe Builds Environmentally and Culturally Appropriate Housing. Innovations, Issue 27, April 2006
- ReCycle North integrates YouthBuild into social enterprise; promotes green building, sustainability, and job readiness. Innovations, Issue 23, February 2006
- YouthBuild Goes Green. YouthBuild Bulletin, Fall 2005
- Cobb County YouthBuild Design Charette Sparks Student Creativity; Increases Knowledge of Sustainable Building Practices. Innovations, Issue 18, July 2005
- Eagle Eye’s Green Education Model, Green Education Complements the YouthBuild Experience, and Builders and Buyers Benefit from Energy-efficient Housing. From the Field, July 2003
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