Residential home developer Thomas Bererton has seen the future. And it's green - albeit a shade of green that may well be more related to the colour of money than the environment.

About 21/2 years ago, the Calgary-based Bererton and business partner Steven Butt launched Green Planet Development Corp. Building on close to 20 years in the investment business, Bererton says the idea came from his own market research that showed a strong trend toward ecologically friendly building products and technologies.

"In the last three years in North America, the fastest-growing sector of the building industry (involves) green building developments," says Bererton. His research showed 62 per cent of Americans noted a preference to buy homes that feature construction materials and operating systems that leave a smaller environmental footprint.

That research also showed a particular interest in energy efficiency. But the move from consumer preference to consumer action, however, appeared to stall at the Alberta border, where historically low energy prices made it easier for homebuyers to opt for conventional products and operating systems with lower upfront costs.

Illustration by Zsolt Kovacs, courtesy of Green Planet Development Corp.
Green Planet Development Corp. is building a 55-unit multi-family townhome project in Airdrie.

"Our personal experience in Alberta has been that people look (at green products and technology) as a bonus," says Bererton. While buyers may like the idea of green products and energy-efficient technology, they're less willing to pay the difference in price.

Green Planet learned that lesson on the ground with its first development, a four-storey, 80-unit resort condominium at Sylvan Lake called Fairway Estates.

The complex, which should be completed by Christmas, includes items such as low-flush toilets and low-use energy lighting.

But its main gree" focus targets energy efficiency. The building features dual-insulated walls, 23 solar panels, triple-pane windows and doors, and a geothermal system used to cool the building in the summer. The parkade includes a heat-recovery system that ensures adequate fresh air movement, but recycles heat that's otherwise lost.

Sales were brisk and Bererton, who held back a few units to completion, admits he could have made more money if he'd predicted the recent boom in prices.

But the biggest surprise was the realization that the success of Fairway Estates owed a great deal to that age-old real estate adage: Location. Location. Location.

Built on the former Lakeside RV Park just east of Sylvan Lake's golf and country club, the development benefited from a spectacular location. Buyers liked the energy-efficient technology, but "if somebody had to choose an equivalently priced product, between the two, they would choose this product (because of its location)," says Bererton.

In other words, the building's energy efficiency was intriguing - and may even offer some bragging rights to owners - but future savings were largely a non-starter. What buyers really liked was the location and the fact its price point was competitive for the market.

That experience aside, Bererton predicts his company is on the right track. He says the tendency to view green technology as a bonus will change as energy prices rise and the price of the technology falls.

Indeed, friends in the renovation business tell him energy efficiency is already a driving force in that part of the market, particularly for high-end homeowners.

With products such as triple-pane windows and high-efficiency furnaces now offering a five-year payback, homebuyers are starting to see more sense to the upgrades, adds Bererton. "People can see five years, but they can't see beyond that and that typically results from the fact that people are moving every four to five years."

The residential market is increasingly plugged into the economic returns of energy-efficient technology, agrees Dan Reefke, a territorial sales manager with Beaver Plastics, an Edmonton-based company that manufactures high-performance, engineered products made from expandable foam plastics.

In addition to durability and ease-of-use on a construction site, several of Beaver Plastics' products offer savings in energy efficiency - savings that attract a growing segment of the industry.

"It's just pure math," says Bob Vasseur, industrial products manager at Beaver Plastics. Still, that data isn't enough on its own and the final decisions, he says, "are wallet driven ... People do want green, but it's also got to hit the bottom line or maybe (they're) not all that interested."

Developers and buyers also keep an eye on a well-known concept called the law of diminishing returns. Those who use expanded polystyrene in the construction process and install a high-efficiency furnace may decide triple-pane windows aren't worth the extra cash.

In the meantime, developers such as Bererton are working on projects that showcase the cost savings of energy-efficient choices. Green Planet's newest development is a 55-unit multi-family townhome development at Airdrie.

The project includes several prototype units that will feature an insulated concrete-form foundation, triple-pane windows and high-energy efficient furnaces. These will be offered as upgrades via show suites that should open by spring 2007.

Projects such as this move the discussion to mainstream markets, something Bererton sees as philosophically important. It's also pretty simple math. As the price of technology drops and energy prices rise, "the economics begin to make more and more sense," says Bererton.

From where he sits, green may be the colour of money. But since energy efficiency also promotes environmental savings, we all win.

(Joy Gregory can be reached at joy@businessedge.ca)