Green Building in North Idaho

Building a Green home is not just about energy and resource conservation: it's about using smart building science to build a better performing, more comfortable home. Scott Schriber, owner of Selle Valley Construction, Inc., has become one of the first Sandpoint area builders to earn the Certified Green Professional (CGP) Designation from the National Association of Home Builders, and is the only Sandpoint area builder that has built homes certified by both the NAHB Green Building Standard and EnergyStar.

What is green building?

The Goal of green building is to build the most comfortable, most sustainable and practical homes we can build for customers and the environment. Green building incorporates environmental considerations and resource efficiency into every step of the land development and building processes. Some of which include, but are not limited to:

• Lot Development and Site Design
• Energy Efficiency
• Water Conservation
• Resource Conservation
• Indoor Environmental Quality
• Building Durability

Why would you want a "Green Home?"

Some of the benefits and advantages to the homeowner are:

• A Quieter More Comfortable Home
• Lower Utility and Operating Costs
• Enhanced Durability & Less Maintenance
• Improved Indoor Air Quality
• Sustainable
• Increased Value

Third Party Verification

To guarantee that your home is built to a Green Building Program's specifications for earning certification we enlist the services of a Third Party Verifier. Verifiers are involved in the process from start to finish and conduct a number of inspections during the process.

Bonner County does not have a building department (the City of Sandpoint does) and homes outside of the City are not inspected for code compliance. In addition to verifying a home for certification, the inclusion of a verifier also provides homeowners with added assurance that their home is built to or above code.

Home Energy Audits

Want to know how your current home performs? We can test your home and make recommendations for improvements to increase your home’s energy efficiency and performance.

Quantified Savings with a HERS Rating

The HERS rating is similar to the EnergyGuide labels you see when appliance shopping. You know the yellow lables with "uses the most energy" on one end and "uses the least energy" on the other end, with a black arrow somewhere in between showing how that particular model measures up to it's competitors. Typically, the cheap models hover around the "most energy" end. A home that just meets code has a HERS Index of 100. For every point above or below 100, the home is that many % less or more efficient than the same home built to code. In other words, lower numbers are better. For example, our latest Cedar Green cottage received a HERS Index of 57, it is 43% more efficient than a code-built new home. According to the Department of Energy's E-Scale the home will save approximately $840 per year in energy costs compared to another newly constructed home built to standard code.