Builders Return to Class for Lessons in ‘Green’

WHEN Rick Ryan and his team were planning the Withers Preserve, a 3,690-acre community of plantation-style houses and condominiums in Myrtle Beach, S.C., they decided to build “green.”

“We were searching for ways to be unique,” said Mr. Ryan, the president of the Withers Preserve Development Company, “and certainly we feel good about ourselves at the end of the day for doing this.”

But building “green” is not that simple. While many commercial builders have been involved in green projects — that is, developments that balance style and function with protection of the environment and conservation of natural resources — residential builders have been slower to incorporate these construction features. Part of the problem was that they had scant guidance as to how, but that is changing.

Mr. Ryan was able to embark on his green project last year with the help of General Electric’s “ecomagination home builder program,” one of several new programs established to teach developers, contractors, architects and other building professionals the techniques for green construction.

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