KB Home to Build Exclusively WaterSense Rated Homes in Future Communities
KB Home, one of the largest and most recognized homebuilders in the United States, has recently announced a tremendous move to serve some of the most drought-stricken communities in the country. From now on, every home built in Arizona, California and Nevada by KB Home will be WaterSense labeled. This means each home will perform at the highest standard for water efficiency as rated by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help residents adapt to the growing prevalence of droughts within their regions.
“In many areas of the U.S., the frequency, intensity, and duration of drought events have been increasing. Water is not something we can take for granted. In 2010, KB Home delivered the first WaterSense labeled home in the nation because we understood that this approach would help reduce the use of a precious natural resource, save our homeowners on utility costs and mitigate drought conditions,” said Jeffrey Mezger, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of KB Home.
The homebuilder has long championed the role the WaterSense program plays in helping to both lower monthly utility costs and minimize carbon footprints and energy usage. According to EPA, WaterSense labeled homes use at least 30% less water than a typical home and can save a household 50,000 gallons of water annually, on average.
To date, KB Home has built over 18,000 WaterSense labeled and Water Smart homes and installed over 900,000 WaterSense labeled fixtures. The company estimates that these homes, together with the WaterSense labeled fixtures within them, conserve approximately 1.6 billion gallons of water annually. For these future homes, KB Home will enlist the RESNET HERS H2O system as a third-party evaluator to ensure that they meet EPA’s requirements.
WaterSense Adds to KB Home’s Efficient Home Systems
In addition to its WaterSense homes, KB Home has been a longstanding practitioner of the EPA’s other efficiency and health initiatives, including the agency’s Energy Star and Indoor airPLUS rating, the latter of which rates a home based on air quality. The homebuilder has constructed over 160,000 ENERGY STAR certified new homes, delivering a level of advanced energy efficiency met by fewer than 10% of new homes built in America. The company is also the only national builder to have earned awards under all these homebuilder programs.
More recently, KB Home became the first builder to implement EPA’s new WaterSense Labeled Homes Program, Version 2.0. Piloted in the Las Vegas area, preliminary field data collected by EPA confirms that homeowners are already seeing significant savings. Each home had a median water use of just 44,000 gallons of water per year compared to the 97,000 gallons per year or more used by typical homes in the region – a 55% reduction in use.
For more information on KB Home’s sustainability initiatives and how the company is building better homes, better communities and a better future, visit kbhome.com/sustainability.
For more information on KB Home, visit kbhome.com.