Sustainable Design Integral to Nation’s Affordable Housing

A longtime Montgomery, Texas real estate executive, Bill Starkey guided Starkey Construction, LLC, for more than three decades. Throughout his career, Bill Starkey emphasized green building materials and sustainable practices to conserve energy and water. He has a strong interest in the sustainable construction sphere's latest trends across a wide range of verticals.

As highlighted in a BuildingGreen article, sustainable design and affordable housing goals can often be aligned in ways that many people do not realize. With a shortage of 7.4 million homes for low-income residents nationwide identified by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, a priority is that such developments be long-lasting, energy-efficient, and beneficial to resident health. Among the strategies that pay long-term dividends are low-flush toilets, VOC paint, and the latest energy-efficiency technologies.

Beyond conserving energy and lightening the community’s energy load, affordable residences built with these principles in mind are also benefit those who live on the property. Low-income tenants find paying utilities to be a major financial burden, and any technology that lessens energy consumption is a boon to the pocketbooks of these financially constrained consumers.