Madison, WI
Leading the Way
The fact that Madison is a college town with a progressive-minded population explains the 30 percent market penetration of its green program, compared with about five percent in the entire state of Wisconsin.
"Before it was, 'Oh, that wacky Madison program," jokes says Robin Pharo, director of Green Built Home, about the perception of Madison around the state. "Now it's, 'Oh yeah, we've got to do that green building thing."
Madison uses the Green Built Home program, founded in 1999 by the Wisconsin Environmental Initiative in partnership with the Madison Area Builders Association. Like the Triangle market, it's also an affiliate of NAHB National Green Building standards.
"If someone wants to do the national certification," says Pharo, "our program offers that. But 99 percent of our houses are just the local certification."
But there are no local mandates for green home building.
"One of the reasons our builders partnered with our program was to actually prevent green building from becoming codified," says Pharo. "The association and our organization think we should reward good practices."
GREEN STATS
Local green building program: Wisconsin Green Built Home
Housing Permits issued in 2008: 1906
Year created: 1999
Homes built in the market following the program in 2008: 1,100
Homes built overall under the program: 4,800 in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois
Market penetration in 2008: 30 percent