Fourth Annual BASF Builders Challenge Award Recipients Announced at IBS 2012

BASF, Professional Builder® magazine and the DOE team up to celebrate excellence in affordable, energy-efficient home building

Florham Park, NJ (PRWEB) February 10, 2012

BASF and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today honored 10 U.S homebuilders during the Fourth Annual BASF Builders Challenge Awards ceremony during the 2012 International Builders Show® at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida.

The BASF Builders Challenge Awards, established by BASF in 2009, pay tribute to builders who achieve significant benchmarks under the DOE Builders Challenge program. To qualify, homes must use at least 30 percent less energy than a typical new home built to code, and they must meet Builders Challenge Quality Criteria to ensure the highest level of comfort and quality. 2012 recipients include:

Most Homes Qualified to the Builders Challenge

•     Lennar Homes and Village Builders, Texas, the 2012 winner in this category, qualified 2,182 homes to Builders Challenge requirements in 2011. Lennar Homes and Village Builders market these high- performance homes to achieve market differentiation, reach new buyers, and sell more homes.

Maximized Energy Performance for homes that produce as much energy as they use:

•     Artistic Homes, Albuquerque, N.M., was recognized for building two Maximized Energy Performance homes. Artistic Homes has received a BASF Builders Challenge Award every year since the award program inception. In 2008, Artistic Homes became the first production homebuilder in the United States to offer a true net-zero energy option on all its homes.
•     Cobblestone Homes, Bay City, Mich., was recognized for achieving a dual certification, meeting both the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Green Building Standard and the Builders Challenge specifications. Additionally, this home received the prestigious NAHB Research Center's EnergyValue® Housing Award and has been marketed as Michigan's first affordable net-zero energy home.

    Greenhill Contracting, Inc., New Paltz, N.Y., was honored both for building net-zero energy luxury homes and for leading the way to make New York State's first net-zero energy development a reality. Greenhill's goal is to build the demand for net–zero homes by reducing the price point, in order to make this net-zero energy the market standard.     Ichijo USA, Seattle, Wash., constructed 10 Maximized Energy Performance homes in 2011. These homes in the zHome sustainable townhome community have Home Energy Rating System (HERS) scores ranging from 0 to -1, and use local materials, employ water reduction strategies, and ensure superior indoor air quality. With this net-zero, carbon neutral project, Ichijo is hoping to set a new benchmark for U.S. housing.     Josh Wynne Construction, Sarasota, Fla., 2011 homes achieves an impressive negative 14 on the HERS Index. Its strategy includes dovetailing traditional craftsmanship with modern building science to deliver comfortable, energy saving, high-performance homes to satisfy the demands of today's homebuyers. The result is a construction backlog beyond 2014.     KB Home, Texas and Calif., built two Maximized Energy Performance homes in 2011. Moreover, KB Home, a national production builder, launched the Zero House 2.0 product line in 2011 and found new ways to streamline the construction process and reduce associated costs in order to make energy-saving production homes attainable to a wide cross-section of homebuyers.     Lifestyle Homes, Melbourne, Fla., achieved the three Maximized Energy Performance homes this past year. Working with DOE Building America team (the Building America Partnership for Improved Residential Construction led by the Florida Solar Energy Center) the team developed of an affordable net-zero energy product line.     Wright-Way Remodeling & Construction, Tyler, Texas, in partnership with Wright Way Solar Technologies, set a new record in 2011 for the lowest HERS score in the nation with a – 28 HERS score. Additionally, the home earned the NAHB's Emerald Certification for excellence in environmental performance.     Zero Energy Plans, Coupeville, Wash., unveiled its Maximized Energy Performance home in 2011 boasting -14 HERS. Due to structural insulated panel (SIP) construction, south-facing windows, efficient heat pump, and 6,000-watt solar panel array, the home has no electrical or heating bills. This single-family, custom home was built for less than the price of an area townhouse.

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To learn more the award recipients and BASF's commitment to sustainable construction, please visit http://www.basf.us/construction.

The Builders Challenge
Spearheaded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Builders Challenge is a voluntary effort to provide compelling answers. Through the Builders Challenge, participating homebuilders will have an easy way to differentiate their best energy-performing homes from other products in the marketplace, and to make the benefits clear to buyers. Since 2008, the U.S. building industry has met the DOE's Builders Challenge initiative with the construction of more than 10,000 high-performance, energy-efficient homes, resulting in cumulative energy cost savings of nearly $15 million and a CO2 emissions reduction of 71,412 tons.

Professional Builder
For more than 74 years, Professional Builder magazine has remained dedicated to serving the needs of the nation's home building community — builders, designers and trade partners — with award-winning content and proven, practical solutions. Each month, Professional Builder is read by 112,000 leading decision makers in the home building market, 100 percent of whom have the authority to buy or specify building materials, products, and equipment.

BASF – The Chemical Company
BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has approximately 16,400 employees in North America, and had sales of $17.7 billion in 2010. For more information about BASF's North American operations, visit http://www.basf.us.

BASF is the world's leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products, and agricultural products to oil and gas. As a reliable partner, BASF creates chemistry to help its customers in virtually all industries to be more successful. With its high-value products and intelligent solutions, BASF plays an important role in finding answers to global challenges, such as climate protection, energy efficiency, nutrition and mobility. BASF posted sales of more than €63.9 billion in 2010 and had approximately 109,000 employees as of the end of the year. Further information on BASF is available on the Internet at http://www.basf.com or in the Social Media Newsroom at newsroom.basf.com.

Professional Builder® is a registered trademark of SGC Horizon – Building & Construction Group.

The International Builders Show® is a registered trademark of the National Association of Home Builders.

The EnergyValue Housing Award® is a registered trademark of the NAHB Research Center.

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