I came across this article in USA today written by Haya El Nasser. It demonstrates how much green knowledge has spread through our society and how much people are beginning to care. It’s not just the young people in the world that are motivated about greening our planet and breathing healthier air. Our seniors want the very best for their children and grand children and they are taking these environmental issues head on.
My favorite statistic is out of a recent poll conducted by Shea Homes (one of the nations largest home builders) and Harris Interactive is that 94% of baby boomers 45 - 62 have taken steps in the past six months to go green.
Don Iburg grew up in the Great Depression, when conserving and recycling weren’t social consciousness but a necessity.
Iburg, 76, is now retired and living in Querencia at Barton Creek, an upscale senior community in Austin. He still conserves and recycles. He even heads the development’s energy task force.
Solar films are on all building windows facing east, west and south. The complex’s swimming pool is warmed by solar heat. Residents have signed on to the local energy company’s green power program that taps wind energy.
Iburg is not just frugal, but “green,” too.
“Because of our Depression roots, the cost saving is paramount,” says Iburg, a retired energy company executive. “But we also buy into saving our natural resources.”
It’s a double bonanza for developers targeting the fast-growing senior market.
Economizing is important to retirees living on fixed incomes — even those in more affluent areas — but so is preserving the planet for their grandkids.
Senior communities are going green to appeal to the graying set. “There is an ever-increasing awareness among seniors,” says Charles Brewer, president and CEO of Senior Quality Lifestyles Corp., a non-profit that built and operates Iburg’s development and other upper-end retirement communities throughout Texas.
“They become very conscious of what things cost. … They may have a private jet, but they’re very frugal in the way they look at everyday lives,” Brewer says.
Shea Homes, one of the nation’s largest home builders, has made solar panels standard features in all 11 of its upscale Trilogy senior developments in California, Washington, Arizona and Florida. A solar roof-tile system can save up to 60% in electric bills, the company says.
The company and Harris Interactive recently polled Baby Boomers ages 45 to 62 about their interest in the environment:
• 81% are concerned about the environmental legacy they will leave for their grandchildren.
• 94% have taken steps in the past six months to go green.
• 79% want to do more to reduce their carbon footprint.
• 36% say a green home saves money, 27% say it improves health, and 25% say a home built from green products and technologies is the smartest green investment, second only to a hybrid car or other alternative-fuel vehicle.
“Certainly, we can do it for the altruistic reasons of saving the world and polar bears,” says Rick Andreen, president of the Shea Homes Active Lifestyle Communities division. “That’s incredibly important, but now it makes financial sense.”
Skyrocketing gas prices in the past year have fueled interest. “Volatility is a big thing for active adult customers,” Andreen says. “It’s very unnerving.”
Shea’s Trilogy homes are wired to support more solar panels and use wood from sustainable forests, recycled newspapers for insulation, recycled copper, wood and tile, energy-efficient appliances and a water-conserving sprinkler system that tracks the weather and shuts off when it rains.
“About five years ago, when I started talking about this as something people in the industry should be paying attention to, there was interest by half a dozen people,” says Leslie Moldow, head of the American Institute of Architects’ Design for Aging Knowledge Committee. “Surprisingly, now it’s quite national.”
Moldow is a principal at Perkins Eastman, a New York-based architectural firm that devotes a quarter of its work to senior living.
“The tail-end Depression-era children remember the idea of saving and recycling from the war years,” she says. “But they’re very attuned to how their actions affect the world at large, their grandchildren, their legacy.”
Surveys show that seniors are willing to pay 2% more for energy-saving features and environmentally sound designs, Moldow says. Cities and towns are rewriting zoning and regulatory codes to provide incentives to developers who institute green measures.
William Ross, 82, says he and his wife, Karyl, did not think too much about how environmentally sound Austin’s Querencia development was when they moved from California’s Contra Costa County to be closer to their daughter.
He’s thrilled that he hasn’t had to run the heater in the 18 months he’s lived there. “We were living in a 30-year-old house, and our heating bills were getting way up there,” he says. “This place is really tight.”
