Celebrated annually on April 22nd, Earth Day is a great opportunity to reflect on our individual and collective impact on the environment and evaluate the choices we make, including where and how we live.
At EYA, thinking green starts early in the site selection process and continues all the way through delivery of our homes. This includes building neighborhoods in close-in locations with easy access to transit and open green spaces, environmentally-friendly home features and more. Read on to learn more about EYA's long-time commitment green building practices and how these benefit our homeowners and the environment.
EYA Pioneers LEED for Homes Certification
EYA has been at the forefront of promoting sustainable living. In fact, EYA was a trailblazer among production builders on how to implement LEED for Homes in new residential projects.
Prior to 2010, LEED certification had traditionally been sought by builders for commercial buildings and custom residential homes. In 2009, EYA sought LEED certification for our Capitol Quarter community in Washington, D.C. featuring over 300 homes. At the time, it became the nation’s largest LEED for Homes residential neighborhood and served as a model for volume builders in how to implement LEED for Homes on a larger scale. This was a significant step for the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), as the organization continued to attract home builders that increasingly saw the value in third-party certification for green claims.
Capitol Quarter received LEED certification for over 300 homes, making it the largest LEED for Homes residential neighborhood at the time.
Several years later, EYA's Old Town Commons became Alexandria's largest LEED for Homes community. And over the years, we have continued to build to with sustainability in mind. To date, EYA has built more than 2,000 LEED for Homes or EarthCraft certified townhomes and 7 multifamily buildings, including The Lindley in Chevy Chase, MD.
Leading the Next Generation of Energy-Efficient Homes
Today, we continue to lead the next generation of energy-efficient homes with our new all-electric communities, offering more opportunities for our homeowners to live sustainable lifestyles.
In 2024, EYA opened its first all-electric community at Reservoir District in D.C. Since then, we have opened five additional all-electric communities across the region.
Reservoir District is EYA's inaugural all-electric community and offers eco-friendly features such as optional solar panel installation.
Benefits of All-Electric Homes
In all-electric homes, no gas lines are run and all the home systems and appliances are electric including the oven/cooktop, HVAC and water heater. All-electric homes can offer many benefits to both homeowners and the environment, including:
Environment
- Reduce dependence on fossil fuels: All-electric homes eliminate the need for fossil fuels, reducing dependency on non-renewable resources and promoting cleaner energy consumption.
- More environmentally-friendly: All-electric homes reduce carbon emissions, helping you reduce your carbon footprint. By using electricity as the primary energy source for heating, cooling, cooking, and powering household appliances, these homes can contribute to a cleaner environment.
Homeowner Comfort & Safety
- Improved safety: With all-electric homes, there is no risk of gas leaks or carbon monoxide poisoning associated with gas-powered appliances. Additionally, with no open flames, there is less risk of fire in the home.
- Better indoor air quality: Electric appliances can provide better indoor air quality compared to their gas counterparts, as they do not produce combustion byproducts or emissions.
- One less utility to manage: All-electric homes offer the added convenience of one less utility to manage and maintain, and one less bill to pay.
Potential Cost Savings
- Potential cost savings for homeowners: All-electric homes typically are highly energy-efficient, which can help lower utility bills for homeowners.
- Incentives and rebates: There may be incentives and tax rebates for further cost savings.
Learn more about EYA's all-electric homes
Furthermore, we are making it easier than ever for homebuyers to embrace renewable solar energy with the option for solar panel installation at more communities, including Reservoir District. Our partnership with Ipsun Solar furthers our commitment to energy efficiency and green building by seamlessly integrating the option for solar panel installation during the home purchasing process.
In fact, the townhome rooftops were designed for added space and optimized placement for solar panels. Homebuyers who select to purchase solar panel installation will have this integrated system fully installed at the time of move-in, offering homebuyers even more opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint, lower energy costs and build a more sustainable future.
Pioneering the Use of Geothermal Energy in DMV Townhome Communities
In addition to all-electric communities, EYA is leading the way for large scale use of geothermal energy at townhome communities in the DMV. Strathmore View in North Bethesda, MD is EYA's inaugural geothermal community. We partnered with Dandelion Energy to offer environmentally-friendly geothermal heating and cooling in the Navarro homesites.
Geothermal systems leverage the natural and consistent underground temperature to heat and cool the home in an efficient, environmentally-friendly and cost effective manner.
What are the benefits of geothermal heating & cooling?
Homes with geothermal heating and cooling can offer numerous benefits to both homeowners and the environment:
- Indoor Air Quality: Geothermal provides quality indoor air as it utilizes a clean energy source with no combustion.
- High Performance System: It is a very high-performance system, even on the hottest and coolest days.
- Quiet & Improved Aesthetics: The system is quiet for added comfort, and as the system is located within and below the home, homeowners enjoy improved outdoor aesthetics and added space.
- Environmentally-Friendly: It's very environmentally-friendly as geothermal utilizes the earth's natural temperatures as a renewable source of energy.
- Cost Savings: There are potential cost savings as highly-efficient geothermal homes can lower utility bills, plus potential incentives and tax rebates may be available.
- Reliable & Long-Lasting: The system is reliable, low maintenance and long-lasting. Ground loops are designed to last the lifetime of the home.
The introduction of geothermal heating and cooling furthers our commitment to energy-efficiency and green building and makes it easier than ever for homeowners to embrace renewable energy and enjoy the cost savings and environmental benefits that come with it.
Read this blog post to learn more about geothermal heating and cooling at Strathmore View.
Thinking Green: Where & How We Build
In addition to building energy-efficient homes, EYA is very thoughtful of where and how we build our communities.
Building transit-oriented communities that offer life within walking distance
Since 1992, EYA's brand promise has been to offer our homeowners the best of life within walking distance®. By building new home communities in close-in locations, residents have easy access to transit, shops, restaurants and recreation, and can rely less on cars to get around. And many EYA communities are nearby parks and trails, or even provide onsite open green spaces, such as landscaped lawns, walking trails, children's playgrounds and more.
Transforming underutilized land into walkable communities
EYA focuses on developing underutilized urban infill land into townhome, multifamily, mixed-use and mixed-income communities. This includes transforming outdated suburban office parks with excess surface parking into next-generation walkable communities.
EYA's townhomes at Reston Station showcase the redevelopment of suburban office buildings into a neighborhood where people want to live, work, and play just steps to Metro, shops and restaurants, along with onsite amenities.
Minimizing construction waste
Throughout the construction process, EYA is dedicated to minimizing waste and typically 70% - 85% of construction waste is recycled.
Installing stormwater management systems & native plantings
Thoughtful consideration is given to landscape materials, native plantings and innovative stormwater management. Whenever possible, we use native plants in our designs to support local biodiversity and ecosystems.
Stormwater management is an integral part of responsible and sustainable redevelopment. EYA communities feature many different stormwater management practices, including both underground systems and more visible systems like bioretention filters. Bioretention filters, often referred to as rain gardens, are designed to naturally collect and clean stormwater runoff, gently releasing it back into the earth through a natural filter of sandy soil, gravel and vegetation.
The benefits of bioretention filters include:
- Protection from flooding and draining complications
- Improved infiltration of water into the soil, replenishing subterranean water reservoirs
- Protects local streams and lakes by minimizing stormwater-carried pollutants such as fertilizers, car fluids, and pesticides
From the initial vision and community planning to construction and landscaping, EYA is committed to environmental stewardship.
Click here to read more about EYA's approach to
building sustainable neighborhoods
Conclusion
Earth Day is a great reminder for all of us to think about our impact on the environment and how our choices matter, from where and how we live to how we get around and more. At EYA, we are constantly striving to reduce our environmental footprint and create communities that foster walkable, sustainable lifestyles for our homeowners.
