Colorado Home Builder Announces Groundbreaking Building Approach to Reduce the Carbon Footprint While Improving the Impacts of Climate Change

Thrive Home Builders Launches Environmentally Conscious Carbon-Wise Building Process

DENVER, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Thrive Home Builders, a Denver-based home builder with 30 years of innovative design building expertise, introduces Thrive Carbon-Wise, a new building approach to producing carbon neutral homes. This pioneering construction method focuses on reducing the embodied and operational carbon of the homes Thrive builds. The result is delivering a home that lessens the harsh impacts of carbon on the environment and helps combat climate change. Thrive Home Builders will produce homes for the first time with this building approach in a community named Sonders in Fort Collins, Colorado, with two collections of single level homes and one collection of townhomes. Production of these homes in Northern Colorado will begin in the fall of 2022.

"We know that reducing the carbon footprint requires global action, but we've made a conscious decision as a home builder to do what we can to lessen the impact of climate change while producing a high performing and quality home for our customers," said Stephen Myers, Chief Executive Officer at Thrive. "Climate change as we know it today has rapidly changed our environment and contributed to massive wildfires, fires in our metro areas and our ever-growing poor air quality. These new carbon neutral homes will decrease climate change impact one homebuyer and home at a time."

Thrive Carbon-Wise is a building approach that focuses on carbon reduction, including both operational carbon, such as the energy use in heating and cooling or lighting in a home, as well as the embodied carbon from the manufacturing of the home's components. With Thrive's new community in Fort Collins, all-electric components such as an electric heat pump will be used rather than a gas furnace and carbon offsets will be purchased for embodied carbon identified in home products.

Recognized by RESNET in 2022 as the most energy-efficient production builder prior to solar, Thrive's end goal is to combine its energy-efficiency with carbon neutrality. When compared with a benchmark home in the industry, such as a 2018 International Energy Innovation Conservation Code (IECC) home, Thrive's 123 homes built in 2021 outperformed its counterparts by 692 fewer tons of carbon emissions per year. This equates to 819 acres of U.S. forests not having to absorb carbon emissions and contributes to a healthier planet. 

By applying its Thrive Carbon-Wise building practices to its 220 homes planned for Fort Collins, it's estimated that a total 1,023 tons of carbon emissions will be reduced when compared to a 2021 IECC home. As a result, the home will be healthier for the homeowner and the negative impacts on the environment will be significantly lowered. The decarbonization practices used by Thrive in Fort Collins is equivalent to driving an average gasoline-powered vehicle 2.5M miles less or charging 124M smartphones or 1,211 acres of U.S. forests not absorbing carbon emissions.

As a small production builder, Thrive's size allows it to be nimble and innovative in its homebuilding practices. Thrive has long been producing energy-efficient homes that come standard with solar power to produce Zero Energy Ready Homes, which reduce the need to use fossil fuels, such as gas, known as major contributors to the environment's climate change. Thrive has a 9-year, award-winning Grand Awards record for housing innovation with the U.S. Department of Energy, which recognizes Thrive's advanced energy-efficient and healthy home standards. In addition, every home is Energy Star Certified and LEED Certified, meeting the highest standards of sustainable building practices and design.

"We've been witnessing the results of climate change locally and globally," said Gene Myers, Chairman and Chief Sustainability Officer at Thrive. "Warmer temperatures also mean a longer plant growing season that contribute to heightened pollen in the air that worsen allergies and asthma and our healthy homes help with these airborne triggers."

Thrive is the five-time recipient of the EPA Indoor airPlus Leader award and has built more homes with the highest of EPA air quality standards than any other home builder in Colorado. Each Thrive home comes standard with an active radon ventilation system and high capture filtration, exceeding the EPA standards. These practices of building homes with clean indoor air quality improves our homeowner's daily health and well-being.

In combination with its standard practices and new Thrive Carbon-Wise building process, Thrive's masterful design and high-functioning homes are redefining everyday living for the homeowner and environment. For more information on Thrive Carbon-Wise, visit https://www.thrivehomebuilders.com/.

Thrive Home Builders is a Denver-based company that has been building energy-efficient and healthy homes in Colorado for the last 30 years. Its building practices have made them a leader in the industry for high performance homes that have provided homeownership for entry-level, income-qualified homeowners to luxury homebuyers. Thrive homes uses innovative building practices that incorporate the highest standards of energy efficiency and sustainability with the homeowner's health in mind. Thrive's Zero Energy Ready Homes are LEED Certified, Energy Star Certified, EPA Indoor airPLUS certified.

SOURCE Thrive Home Builders