Is It Worth It?

Sure, lots of consumers are happy to spend an extra $2 or so for a gallon of organic milk or 50 cents more for a pound of low-spray apples. But what about a three bedroom condo with Energy Star appliances, eco-friendly finishes and paint, and triple-glazed windows? The equations get more complicated. Developer James Robertson of Centre Street Realty has spent 10 years building and selling high end condominiums in up-and-coming Boston neighborhoods. Now, for the first time, he’s about to put a “green” project on the market. The nine units in his rehabbed South End building come with appliances that use less electricity and water than standard ones, and floorboards that were saved and refinished rather than ripped out and replaced. There are motion detectors instead of light switches in less-used areas to lower the chance that a bulb will be left on unnecessarily.

On the roof, a rain-barrel system collects water to irrigate the garden.

Robertson says his costs were 10 to 15 percent higher for this building than other projects because of its eco-friendly elements, but he’s convinced that building green is good business. This is especially true in a saturated residential market, he says, where buyers have so many choices. Of course, Robertson expects to pass on those extra costs as soon as he starts selling. (The cheapest of his two-, three-, and fourbedroom units will be priced at $1 million.)

A homeowner who needs new appliances but isn’t planning to sell – and hopes to earn a profit – right away has a different set of calculations to make, and green building is new enough that its overall effect on home values hasn’t been established. But Robertson, like a lot of people in the building business, says it’s giving sellers an edge when it comes time to put a home on the market. “When you build a better product, it shows,” he says. “You sell it quicker and for more money.”

There are also attractions to green improvements that have nothing to do with a home’s price tag. “It’s part of a lifestyle question,” says Michael Davis, an architect at Bergmeyer in Boston and a former member of the Mayor’s Green Building Task Force, convened in 2003 and 2004 to make a 10-point green plan for the city. The more you understand your home’s impact on your health and on the world, he says, the more attractive your green choices will be. And making some green choices doesn’t always mean you have to spend more.

Homeowner Sylvia Crawford bought and tore down a 1950s ranch house in Brookline and is working with a contractor to build a new place from the foundation up – the kind of project that creates a lot of garbage. But Crawford, who calls herself a serial remodeler, is determined to minimize the project’s environmental impact. Instead of sending demolition waste to the landfill, she’s spending about 15 percent more to use a Maine sorting facility that recycles, pulling out concrete to be crushed for roads and wood to be pulped. Still, Crawford says, she’s saving money in other places.

Despite her contractor’s reluctance, Crawford wanted to reuse the oak floorboards from the ranch house. She estimates that the labor to remove the old boards cost about $2 to $3 per square foot, and workers salvaged about 1,000 square feet of flooring. This was “the same price as a very inexpensive floor,” Crawford says, “but the floorboards are of a much higher quality, so we are getting a nice quality floor material at an economy floor material price.” For her new basement, Crawford plans to purchase cork flooring for about $8 per square foot, but it won’t require labor-intensive sanding, she points out, just sealing. (Cork, like bamboo, grows much faster than hardwood; both are considered green materials, even when new.) “It is also soft and warm on the feet,” she says. “In the end, it might be a little cheaper than a traditional wood fl oor would be.”

Robertson and Crawford each picked just a few of the options available. There are many more green improvements, large and small, that homeowners can make. The best new resource for anyone who wants to know more is the Nexus Green Building Resource Center, which opened in Boston last month and is open all day on weekdays and on weekends and evenings by appointment. Run by The Green Roundtable, an independent nonprofit organization with a mission to mainstream green building, the center provides free educational seminars that are open to the public; it also has a materials library and staff members available to help anyone who walks in with questions. Nexus staff can also counsel homeowners on managing the costs of renovation or construction projects, including figuring out how much they can save on energy bills by buying a more expensive green appliance, which kinds of renovation projects qualify for federal and state tax credits, and even how to get a few special financing deals offered for green home-improvement projects.

But even a quick trip to your neighborhood hardware store can get you started. The following list is by no means comprehensive. It starts with quick fi xes that won’t cost much (and won’t change your home’s value) and extends to major, messy overhauls that could prove to be solid investments in eventual resale value.

Light Smart

Traditional bulbs heat up when they produce light, a waste of energy that shows up on your electric bill. Fluorescent bulbs, on the other hand, produce 70 percent less heat than traditional ones, according Maria Vargas of the US Environmental Protection Agency. Vargas is the spokesperson for Energy Star, a program of the US Department of Energy and the EPA that promotes energy efficiency and cost savings for consumers. Over the lifetime of one small fluorescent bulb, she says, you can save $30 in energy costs and create fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Fluorescents also last 10 times longer than standard bulbs, so you buy fewer and throw fewer away.

Clean Green

Anything you use to clean floors or countertops can also be inhaled and ingested, warns Barbra Batshalom, executive director of The Green Roundtable. Moreover, runoff winds up wherever sewers drain, sending harsh chemicals into the environment. “The key issue is getting people to understand that you don’t need toxic chemicals to clean your home,” she says.

Just about every major retailer that sells cleaning supplies off ers eco-friendlier options. The same applies to fertilizers for your garden; choose commercial organic fertilizers, or make your own by recycling kitchen and yard scraps as compost.

Plant Native

“You can’t just buy any plant at Home Depot and plant it anywhere,” says Robert Corning, president of the Boston Society of Landscape Architects and a partner at Geller DeVellis, a landscape and civil engineering firm with offices in Boston and Wellesley. The plants that will live the longest and require the least amount of water and fertilizer are ones that are adapted to life in the Northeast. Workers at any nursery can steer you toward native plants.

Also remember that perfectly manicured lawns can be pretty, but they can also require chemicals and watering. Instead, consider giving over part of your landscaping to a low-impact meadow mix of native flowers and grasses. The look is wilder, Corning says, but this kind of yard is heartier, plus it’s cheaper and easier to maintain.

Avoid That Freshly Painted Smell

Most paints, paint strippers, and lacquers emit gases called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, says Quincy Vale, former manager of the green buildings program for the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. That’s the smell of a freshly painted room or new car and, Vale says, “It’s not good for you.” He now runs a green, modular home building company called PowerHouse in Lawrence, and recommends that buyers seek out safer paint, even for small projects. The price difference is negotiable, but with low-VOC paints there are fewer choices for color and sheen.

Lower the Flow

A faucet aerator costs less than $10 at a hardware store and can be installed in minutes; it reduces the amount of water used without affecting pressure and saves about 2 gallons per minute, says The Green Roundtable’s Batshalom. If you’re in the market for new bathroom hardware, almost any shower head or faucet you buy new today is classified as “low-flow,” which means it uses 2.5 gallons of water per minute. Home Depot has a low-flow shower head that costs $38. It’s a bigger job, but replacing old toilets saves even more water. New federal mandates say that toilets can’t use more than 1.6 gallons of water per flush; some pre-1994 models use up to 3.5 gallons, says the EPA’s Vargas.

Caulks Leaks, and Consider Insulation

Sealing air leaks and drafts in your home can help cut your annual energy bills by 10 percent, says Vargas, which makes a $4 tube of window and door caulk and a $15 caulking gun attractive investments. Besides windows and doors, the most common leaks happen through wall openings that feed cables or pipes, says Batshalom, like those behind a home-entertainment system or clothes dryer. Call your local electric or gas company to set up free audit; a technician will visit your home and point out leaks around windows, doors, switches, and in your cellar and attic and give advice on what you can seal, as well as on bigger jobs like switching to an energy-efficient furnace.

You can also check for gaps in your home’s insulation with infrared detection. Keyspan Energy charges $150 to add that service to its audits. The cost of new home insulation is roughly $2 per square foot for expanding foam or loose-fi ll insulation, says Batshalom, but homeowners can earn a federal tax rebate equal to 10 percent of the cost of new home insulation, capped at $500.

Catch the Rain

A low spot in your yard can collect rainwater and snowmelt. Plant native wildflowers, ferns, shrubs, and grasses there that can sur- vive wet conditions, and you have what’s called a rain garden, says Corning. Unlike the mud slick a grassy low spot can become, water collected in a rain garden will slowly and steadily seep back into the ground.

Gutter downspouts are another great way to capture rain, says Corning. Plastic and wooden barrels to collect the rain can cost between $100 and $200; Corning bought one, added a $20 hose, and built a simple water-drip system that feeds his garden from the water he collects. A lid keeps mosquitoes from breeding in the barrels.

Buy Energy Efficient Appliances

If you’re overhauling your kitchen, look for energy-efficient appliances with the EPA’s Energy Star label. According to the EPA’s Vargas, replacing a pre-1994 dishwasher with an efficient modern model saves $25 per year in energy bills. Prices at Sears for Energy Star models start at $200 – that one pays for itself in eight years – and go up to $1,500. An old refrigerator, in particular, can be a major drain; Energy Star refrigerators use 15 percent less energy than current federal law requires and 40 percent less than conventional models sold in 2001. You will more than make up for the upfront cost of an energy-efficient appliance over the life of the product, Vargas says, most likely within five years of purchase.

Look at Your Windows

Replacing your windows is an expensive undertaking, no matter how you look at it. But if you’re in the midst of a major renovation, new types of windows that allow for high solar gain (letting in the free heat the sun provides) and low heat transfer (not letting out the heat you pay for) can save energy costs. The EPA estimates that replacing old-fashioned single-pane windows can save a homeowner as much as $450 per year in New England. Energy Star windows cost about 15 percent more upfront, says Vargas, but there’s a federal tax credit available, too, worth up to $200.

Batshalom’s recommendations include “low-E” windows, which have an invisible metal coating that helps keep heat inside in winter and outside in summer, and frames made of non-heat conducting materials like wood or fiberglass, rather than aluminum.

Priya Giri Desai lives in Boston. E-mail comments to magazine@globe.com.