The Hamptons Green Alliance (HGA) is building a net-zero energy, carbon-neutral house. We at Verus are proud to be a part of this amazing project and to be working with, Certified Carbon Neutral custom home building firm, Telemark, who is the general contractor.

Telemark President, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Frank Dalene, is an environmentalist who builds quality custom homes and founded the Hamptons Green Alliance. It makes sense that he invented what he calls the International Carbon Equivalent Mechanism Attributed to Neutrality (ICEMAN™) to calculate and index the carbon neutrality associated with the production of materials and products using guidelines established as a result of the Kyoto Protocol, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and other similar efforts.

The market for green-built homes is growing especially as energy costs rise. We are seeing a move past LEED and into Carbon Neutral. According to a University of Michigan study, the building of homes represents 9% of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of a home. Living in the home represents the other 91% of the greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, building energy-efficiency into your home makes a tremendous difference in your annual footprint.

Housing represents 31% of the Greenhouse Gas emissions in the US each year. Of these emissions, 90% come from natural gas and grid electricity. Basically, if you can be energy efficient you can make an important reduction in global climate change!