Consort Homes says building green helps business

Sluggish new house sales a couple of years ago prompted Consort Homes LLC officials to think green.

That’s green, as in more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. But it helped lead to more green, as in dollars, last year in the company’s coffers.

Chesterfield-based Consort’s new house sales grew dramatically last year over 2009, despite the recession.

“We had a really good 2010,” said Ed Petras, Consort’s sales and marketing director. “Our sales were up 122 percent over 2009.”

He credited much of the improvement to pent-up demand, but also to a commitment made early in 2009 by company officials to build only houses from that point forward that meet the green standards set by the Home Builders Association of St. Louis and Eastern Missouri.

Those standards go beyond basic required building codes by outlining practices for the design, construction and certification of green residential buildings. The standards require specific energy cost savings over houses that are built only to meet basic building codes.

“Consort is the biggest user of our program so far,” said Steve Loos, senior staff vice president of the Home Builders Association. “They are the only production builder that we are aware of that is using these standards with every new home they build.”

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