Habitat for Humanity Oakland goes green on new homes

Habitat for Humanity of Oakland County plans to build or rehab about a dozen homes this year as sustainably as possible, but without LEED certification, and that’s a good thing.The local chapter is building four infill houses now and plans to construct two more as part of its Businesses Build Hope campaign later this summer. It’s also rehabbing five homes. All of them are in Pontiac and exhibit a broad range of sustainable features, such as reusing existing buildings.”We have committed that all of our buildings will be up to this level of sustainability,” says Sally LePla, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Oakland County.That level is the one established by the Michigan Green Building Standards, as opposed to navigating the expensive LEED certification process. The Michigan Green Building Standards are similar to the LEED levels, but much cheaper to attain.That doesn’t mean Habitat for Humanity of Oakland County is shrugging off LEED. It built two houses that attained platinum certification last year and plans to keep building either at that level or something close for the foreseeable future.Source: Sally LePla, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Oakland CountyWriter: Jon Zemke