The green effect

Their matching rubber wristbands proclaim: "Embrace your inner green." But embrace doesn't begin to describe what's going on in Newburyport, where Alexas Kelly and George Stroman are rebuilding their 1889 Colonial-style house from the floor up with earth-friendly precision.

Their backyard stone patio is recycled from the home's original stone foundation, which was ripped out and replaced by super-insulated concrete. New toilets conserve water by using half a flush for liquids and a full flush for solids. A recently installed thermal, solar, metal roof with ultra thin photovoltaic panels is designed to generate enough warmth and power yearly to supply 80 percent of the hot water, 30 percent of the heat, and at least 50 percent of the electricity the family will use in a year.

It's been slow going and it hasn't been cheap. The cash-strapped couple spent $30,000 on the high-tech roof, and even with rebates and tax credits, the final $19,000 price tag is about three times what it would have cost for a traditional shingle roof. But with projected cost savings for heat, hot water, and electricity, they calculate they will come out ahead in about six years.

Once considered the realm of tofu-munching types, so-called green construction is sprouting across mainstream suburbia, from a multi million-

dollar residential, retail, and office complex going up in Chelsea to a recently completed renovation by a small nonprofit group in Essex.

The concept goes way beyond harnessing solar and wind power as ways to curb energy costs and pollution. With a mantra of reduce and reuse, green builders are incorporating rainwater capture and re use systems for watering lawns and flushing toilets. They're planting sedum roofs to reduce storm - water run off and boost insulation. They're eschewing paint and floor polishes considered harsh on the environment for more gentle finishes.

"It's become big business," said Sam Nutter, green building specialist with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a quasi public agency that fosters renewable energy projects. "Everybody wants their building and their headquarters and their stores to be associated with green."

Figures released Monday by Governor Deval Patrick's office suggest that Massachusetts is fertile territory. The state is second only to California, according to the data, in terms of venture-capital investment -- $250 million last year -- in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and clean-energy consulting.

Green construction in Massachusetts is becoming so popular in mainstream building that the collaborative has shifted its focus and funding to schools and affordable housing projects, where money is usually tight, Nutter said. The collaborative also is working on more fully documenting a cost-vs.-benefit analysis of green construction, a hot topic in the burgeoning trend.

A December 2005 review by the collaborative of 30 green school construction projects, including 12 in Massachusetts, concluded that green schools cost 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent more to build than conventional schools, but provide financial benefits that are 10 to 20 times as large, such as energy and water savings. Other studies have compared green and conventional building costs and found no apparent price differences.

As the debate over costs continues, the green trend nationwide is apparently spreading like kudzu, with the market projected to exceed $12 billion this year, up from about $7 billion just two years ago, according to the US Green Building Council, a coalition of builders, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations.

Green construction is "just good design," said James Bill, development manager of Urban Design & Development, the company that is transforming an 18-acre former industrial site on the Chelsea waterfront into Forbes Park, a 350-unit residential, retail, and office complex that boasts an "eco-friendly" approach.

After spending $3.5 million to clean up the property, the company is recycling most of the site's industrial buildings, reusing brick walls and concrete floors, installing large windows to maximize light and air, preserving 12 acres along the waterfront for migratory shore birds, and directing storm-water run off into a huge retention pond that will be used for watering the landscape and flushing toilets. The developers also plan to install a 650-kilowatt wind turbine to help power the giant complex -- and its planned fleet of electric cars for residents.

Scheduled to open next spring, Forbes Park is expected by its developer to be an eco-friendly village -- with one-bedroom condos starting at $250,000 -- that will appeal to downsizing baby boomers and young, urban singles.

Just a few blocks away, another eco-friendly Chelsea project that also is expected to be opened next spring broke ground last week. Parkside Commons, a 238-unit apartment complex, will feature solar panels, water-saving toilets, and a construction design that reduces energy use and utility bills by maximizing daylight, developer John M. Corcoran said.

Farther north, the recently completed renovation and expansion of Essex County Greenbelt's headquarters in Essex is more modest. With a 1,000-gallon system to capture and recycle rainwater that was donated by the project's builder, Hamilton-based Allsopp Design, the project includes desks created from 200-year-old floorboards recycled from the nonprofit organization's original building. Super-efficient, environmentally friendly insulation that resembles lemon meringue was used in exterior walls, and a ground-mounted 150-watt photovoltaic panel that tracks the sun is projected to provide about 10 percent of the building's electrical needs. Radiators, pipes, and wood that could not be reused in the project were shipped to places that could recycle or reuse them.

"We thought it was a great time to demonstrate the green technology, while at the same time we knew over time it would save us some money," said Greenbelt executive director Ed Becker.

The group has not tallied total costs vs. savings for its project, but Becker figures that it will take about 22 years to break even for the project's single largest expense, $25,000 for the photovoltaic system.

Green building can require some patience. Consider the six years that Gloucester developer Mac Bell has devoted to his planned $20 million, 80,000-square-foot office park on the Annisquam River. It will, he said, include geothermal heating, a sedum roof, and a 250-kilowatt wind turbine.

The developer initially did not figure he would be in negotiations with KeySpan for more than two years to obtain a 30-foot easement on the utility company's vacant lot next door. The extra space is needed as a "fall zone" around the planned 170-foot wind turbine, Bell said.

Still, the delays and mounting costs have not dampened the developer's enthusiasm for going green.

"It's the only way to go," said Bell, who estimated he is still a year away from breaking ground.

Green construction, he said, "is both rational and marketable. It's the future."

More information on green building may be found at masstech.org.

Kay Lazar can be reached at klazar@globe.com.

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