Eco-friendly can be green and gorgeous

"Futurama" returned for the 1964-1965 World's Fair, wowing more than 29 million visitors with GM's forecast for life in 2024. In that vision, tropical forests will be toppled by laser beams and ground up on the spot by traveling factories, making way for super-highways. Americans will be drilling oil from enclosed pods anchored to the ocean floor, slicing holes in the Antarctic ice to construct weather stations, and building bridges on the moon's surface.

There is a more realistic "Futurama," here, in Anne Arundel County. It shows an eco-friendly lifestyle many Marylanders are not living now, but could be living in the not-so-distant future. Next year, perhaps.

No one lives in this home, located in a new development in Gambrills, though it is elegant and inviting. Called an Emerson Eco-Model and located at The Preserve at Severn Run, it is a model home designed to serve as a "green learning center" for area architects, builders, real estate agents, homeowners, future homebuyers, students and the merely curious. The model was constructed by Baldwin Homes, an Arnold-based company that builds new residential communities and also handles renovations, restorations and remodeling.

"This green house is not just individual pieces, but a system," said Mike Baldwin, 44, president and owner of Baldwin Homes. "I wanted to show that a green home lasts a long time, involves less maintenance and is energy efficient and healthy."

The home boasts more than 69 green features inside and out. Visitors receive a glossy booklet that lists and describes each item. Small numbered signs clue visitors to a corresponding feature.

In addition to Baldwin Homes and its contractors, 21 companies assisted with the building process. The model has earned five green certifications, among them a LEED Gold, NAHB Emerald, Energy Star, Building American and Environments for Living Green.

Last year, the Home Builders Association of Maryland designated it Maryland's 2009 Green Home of the Year.

The 70th feature that Mike forgot to note is that all the furniture and furnishings in the house are recycled. Every piece came from the company's other model homes, including the grass bed skirt in the lime green, tropical princess bedroom on the second floor.

From outside in

At 6,800 square feet, including seven bedrooms and a finished basement, the home is twice the size of Baldwin Homes' conventional models, as the designers added several extra rooms for instructional purposes. In the rear of the property is a large shed that had stood on the land for years. It was renovated for use as a meeting space and classroom. Eventually Mike hopes to install a "green roof" of living plants atop a portion of the shed.

After glancing at the handsome house, the second thing a visitor encounters is a large ditch in front of the residence. "It's a vegetated swale," explained Baldwin employee Lisa Feeheley. "One of the drain spouts on the house leads into the swale, which has 6 inches of sand. The vegetation provides root mats that act as filters to filter, filter, filter the rainwater."

Other spouts are either connected to rain barrels to provide water for watering the garden or washing a car or they are hooked to a system of soaker hoses and irrigation pipes that thread through the gardens of native plantings. "We landscaped with hydro-zoning or zero-scaping," Lisa said. "These plants all have the same water needs."

Pavers on the front entrance walkway are permeable, allowing rainwater runoff to drain into the ground instead of sheeting away.

Before touring the inside, Mike directs visitors to a piece of land further down the street. "The property for this community was originally platted as a small bedroom community for the Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad line in the early 1900s, but it got lost during the Depression. The station was nearby. The lots were small, about 25 by 100 feet. At one point, The Baltimore Sun was giving away some of the lots with new, paid subscriptions. My dad began buying the lots up in the 1950s when they were auctioned or put up for sale for less than $1,000 apiece. Over four decades, he slowly assembled the land we're developing now. We have 70 of these one-acre lots."

He pointed out that the water from the development feeds through smaller streams into the Jabez Branch Creek, the last natural brook trout stream in the Maryland coastal plain. "It's the first community anywhere in the world planned and built with a regenerative storm water management system. We're using nature to control nature. All the rainwater that hits land here, stays here," he said. "It's the first coastal plains outfall, now called a storm water conveyance system, designed for a completely new community. It's the first in this county and in the world. Other, older communities have been retro-fitted with this system."

Pointing to a series of interconnected ponds surrounded by large bog iron boulders and laced with silvery, weathered tree trunks, Mike added, "This is in contrast to normal sediment ponds that just empty into a stream, and is the next generation. These bio-retention ponds were planted as the houses were being built. The stone weirs slow rainwater down and temper it before it goes into the streams. Usually, the velocity of rainwater scours the streambeds and carries sediment with it as it empties into the rivers. Most sediment clogging our streams and rivers comes from rain runoff. Landscape architect Keith Underwood, of Underwood & Associates, planted the weirs with Atlantic White Cedars with the help of students studying at the Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center. The trees that were downed or that we cut down on site provide a habitat."

"Why did we do this? Once we found the brook trout were endangered, it was a unique opportunity to do something. We were intrigued by the new design as something we could do to help the environment. It is kind of experimental."

Returning to the model, Mike explained the home building team's goal was to reduce energy costs by sourcing most of the home's materials within a 500-mile radius of Gambrills. They also had many materials, such as flooring, pre-finished off-site. Where possible, they used recycled or recyclable materials. The asphalt driveway was manufactured locally and used some post-production recycled content. The attractive siding is made of fiber cement that contains some wood fiber and recycled cement. "It was pre-painted," he said. "The factory can manage off-gassing better than we can."

Pointing upward, Mike noted the house had 12-inch overhangs on all sides. "The overhang protects the home from the weather and provides shade. It's a feature that is sometimes eliminated on the sides to save a builder some money."

"Green building is not just building a green home, but managing our resources wisely and by putting less into the landfills," he said.

Oh boy! Was Mike leading us into some ascetic monastery?

The front door opened and …

Inside the super-model home

… it looked gorgeous! Isn't "green" and "eco-friendly" supposed to be boring?

All the room settings were beautiful, but Mike didn't linger. He wanted to show all 69 green features.

The "bones" of the home help reduce energy costs. Some parts, like walls, floor joists and roof trusses were pre-built in a factory, reducing waste. On site, the first floor headers and heels were raised, allowing the placement of additional insulation around the windows. South-facing windows in the home are Pella Sun Defense styles with extra sheer, bronze-colored glazing and insulation to reduce the sun's glare and heat. Mike joked, "These windows are like putting on a heavy pair of sunglasses. They cut down on the sun's UV rays."

Within the home's exterior and interior walls, NCFI open cell foam insulation has been sprayed, filling up the cavities to cut down on energy loss and air leaks.

Throughout the house the floors were either pre-finished bamboo or cork, both renewable resources. The bamboo flooring was manufactured with "low VOC" (volatile organic compounds) adhesives. Nearly every wall was painted or papered using low VOC materials; one bedroom featured walls painted with "no VOC" paint. "These McCormick paints finish off-gassing in three or four days," he said.

Bathrooms have dual flush toilets. Depending upon what was put in the toilet, a user could choose a 1.1-gallon or 1.6-gallon flush. "For a family of four, this feature can save 4,000 gallons of water every year," Mike said.

Throughout the house, low flow faucets and shower heads were installed using 20 percent less water than regular faucets and showers, with similar results. The bathrooms boast attractive tiles made with recycled content. "They're nice!" he said. "You're not giving anything up here." One bathroom featured an Eco-Stone countertop made of 75 percent recycled content. All the bathroom fans had multiple-choice timer settings.

Talk of low and no VOC materials continued into the kitchen, where the locally-sourced cabinetry has no added urea formaldehyde.

The brushed stainless steel Energy Star refrigerator and freezer duo looked huge. "They're oversized to encourage homeowners to get rid of the old fridge in the garage that's draining electricity because it is old and inefficient," said Mike. The home's Energy Star refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher and washing machine can reduce water and energy costs 25 percent over regular appliances.

One wall held a GE Ecomagination Home Management System. Touching the small screen, a homeowner can check on the home's water and electricity consumption and costs-to-date.

A plate on a second wall held a lighting control system. Got teens? Not sure if they extinguished all the lights? One flick and every light in the house clicks off. Those are low energy, long-lasting GE CFL or Seagull LED light bulbs, of course.

Mike was eager to talk about the tankless hot water heater, the manifold plumbing system and the cross-linked red and blue polyethylene pipes in the basement, along with the basement's pre-cast, nine-foot high walls. He made sure we saw the Velux sun tunnel, a flexible domed tunnel skylight. Up on the second floor, it casts a sunny glow. And, we looked at every eco-friendly nook and cranny inside.

"A lot of things in this house I have in my own home," he said. "I'm a member National Association of Home Builders 20 Club in this area. I learned from the other members and went through courses. Much of what Baldwin Homes was doing in our higher quality homes is already 'green.' As I became a better builder, I became a greener builder."

"The purpose of this house is that it doesn't look different from any other house."

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Would you like to see your house, townhome, condo, apartment or cottage featured as The Capital's Home of the Week? To nominate your home, e-mail Wendi Winters at wendi@quantumstep.com. Include your contact information and details about your residence.