Something dynamic is occurring in the hills of Northern California. A house is going up that is unlike anything that has come before it, built to achieve the LEED Platinum rating as a model of sustainability—and Ewing is helping to make it happen.
It’s called Casa Belle Verde, a 7,500-foot residence on 40 acres located in El Dorado Hills, northeast of Sacramento. The home is designed to be as energy and water efficient as possible, without sacrificing aesthetic beauty or modern comforts and technology.
Water savings
Conserving and consuming water efficiently is one of the hallmarks of Casa Bella Verde.
“Water is a very precious thing. We definitely take water seriously here,” said designer and owner Briana Alhadeff. “I grew up with water rationing. Northern California doesn’t have that sense of urgency now, but conservation is still important.”
With a major focus on water conservation, Casa Bella Verde will feature an on-site water treatment facility, and harvest rainwater with an 80,000-gallon cistern.
The house will include a separate, self-contained graywater treatment system to allow the water from sinks, showers and appliances to be used for landscape irrigation.
With the home’s water needs being met responsibly, Ewing is pledging to extend those water savings with Casa Bella Verde’s irrigation system.
“We’re big on water conservation in the Sacramento Valley, and wanted to be a part of this effort,” said Michael Haymore, Ewing’s regional manager for the Sacramento Valley.
As a sponsor of this innovative residential project, Ewing is contributing to the creation of a sustainable landscape. Haymore arranged a donation of irrigation products from the nearby Roseville branch, including tubing, drip emitters, valves and PVC pipe, and helped design the irrigation for the project.
Maximizing water efficiency contributes to a higher LEED rating, by contributing points to the LEED Water Efficiency category.
“We’ve done everything we possibly could”
The LEED rating system features 100 base points distributed across five major credit categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality. It also includes additional points for design innovation and regional priority. Buildings can qualify for four levels of certification, of which Platinum, at 80 points and above, is the highest.
“We’ve done everything we possibly could, and we’re going above and beyond in our efforts to earn the Platinum rating,” said Alhadeff.
Casa Bella Verde is not made of wood, but rather Insulating Concrete Forms (ICF), which are made of expanded polystyrene foam and filled with concrete after being locked together. Rooftop solar panels and residential wind generators will provide renewable energy to the house. The house is scheduled for completion in December.
Casa Bella Verde is the latest example of Ewing’s commitment to preserving our most precious resource—water. To learn more about this project, visit the Casa Bella Verde website.
