Thinking Green

MORGAN-KEEFE BUILDERS CONSTRUCTS NC HEALTHYBUILT HOME
Luxury Builder Goes for Gold Certification in Champion Hills Home

Morgan-Keefe Builders is constructing a unique luxury custom home in Hendersonville’s Champion Hills that will be completed by year’s end. Although Morgan-Keefe has built many custom homes in this desirable golf community, this will be the builder’s first certified green home.

The Champion Hills home will include a pub and gaming room, home office, multiple outdoor living spaces, and a suspended driveway and waterfall feature.

The home will also include an amenity that sets it apart from its neighbors—sustainability. The homeowners did not want luxury at the environment’s expense. They presented Morgan-Keefe with an interesting challenge: how to build a 6,700 sq. ft. home that was both luxurious and sustainable.

Ultimately, the homeowners, architect Alice Dodson, and Morgan-Keefe Builders decided to build a high-performance home using green construction standards set by the North Carolina HealthyBuilt Homes (HBH) Program.

Going for the Gold

During a recent HBH inspection, the Champion Hills home was projected at the gold level. If it maintains this projected rating when completed, this home will receive the highest certification offered by the HBH program. It will also be one of only four HealthyBuilt certified homes in Henderson County, though the program is gaining in popularity and many more are under construction across Western North Carolina.

“The Champion Hills home is the only one of its size achieving gold level at this time,” notes Maggie Leslie, program director for the Western North Carolina Green Building Council.

A HealthyBuilt Home is a high-performance home that reduces energy and water usage and protects the environment while enhancing the comfort and health of its occupants.

Although Morgan-Keefe has built energy-efficient luxury homes in WNC for more than 28 years, this Champion Hills home will be the company’s first certified HealthyBuilt Home.

“The stack of paperwork and checklists that had to be followed was a bit overwhelming at first,” recalls project manager Steve Hammett.

“Once I got my feet wet and worked with HBH raters Amy and Matt Musser, I realized that Morgan-Keefe already incorporates many of these techniques as standard practice,” Hammett shares.

When the project began, the homeowners and Morgan-Keefe were hoping to qualify for silver certification.

To help them achieve this goal, they chose a geothermal HVAC system that uses the earth’s constant temperature to help reduce energy requirements for heating and cooling. They also selected an energy recovery ventilation system and whole-house HEPA filter to condition and improve the home’s indoor air quality.

These alternative energy choices helped the Champion Hills home reduce its projected energy consumption and carbon footprint by more than 40 percent compared to a similar-sized home with a traditional heating and cooling system.

These significant energy reduction gains inspired the team to work even harder under the HBH program.

“Once we started, we all became eager to work toward gold certification and decided to see where we could change some options and selections,” Hammett shares.

The HBH program evaluates homes in five major categories: site protection, water conservation, energy efficiency, indoor air quality and materials selection.

The Champion Hills home scored high in all five categories with advanced erosion control measures, onsite timber milling, a tight building envelope, water- and energy-efficient fixtures and appliances, recycled building materials and low-VOC nontoxic finishes.

Green Construction: A Sustainable Trend

While the Champion Hills home is Morgan-Keefe’s first HealthyBuilt Home, the company has already started construction on another one in Balsam Mountain Preserve. Morgan-Keefe is also building the first custom home in Versant, Asheville’s only Audubon-sanctioned luxury community.

This is a trend that is likely to continue according to Morgan-Keefe’s owner Malcolm Morgan.

“We’ve been building energy-efficient homes for years, but recently more and more of our clients are asking about green building options,” Morgan notes.

“Today’s homeowners are more conscious about the potential environmental impacts of construction,” he adds.

So is Morgan-Keefe. The construction company is a platinum member of the WNC Green Building Council and participates in the Appalachian Offsets program by purchasing carbon offsets that reduce local greenhouse gas emissions.