Evolutionary Home Builders Advances View of Sustainable Building with Accomplishments in 2014
CHICAGO (Jan. 22, 2015) – Chicago-based, high-performance homebuilder Evolutionary Home Builders (EHB) celebrated a successful 2014 with a company-wide rebrand, multiple awards and first-of-its kind initiatives, including the country’s first hybrid Passive House & Living Building Challenge certified home and Illinois’ first installation of the DOW POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingle, resulting in national recognition as a leader in the sustainability sphere. Led by Founder, Brandon Weiss, EHB experienced a monumental year, boosting its green building platform to focus on sharing the firm’s expertise through a series of cutting-edge, evolutionary projects and events.
“We recognized a need to reposition our brand in a way that completely reflects our full capabilities and services, hence our name change to Evolutionary Home Builders,” notes EHB Founder Brandon Weiss. “Our full-circle healthy living mantra was further enhanced through the range of our projects and awards this year which looked beyond just building homes.”
In addition to changing its company name from Weiss Building & Development LLC to Evolutionary Home Builders, EHB also looked to extend its services by opening the eco-luxe retail space “The Evolutionary Home” in Geneva, Illinois. The space welcomes homeowners and green building enthusiasts to test new eco-friendly products and envision building their dream healthy home, complete with the highest levels of energy efficiency, building science and indoor air quality EHB has to offer. This is also a source for builders, designers and architects to source building materials from start to finish of construction, which are vetted based on EHB’s level of sustainability, from foundation to finishes to furnishings.
“We wanted to give homeowners a sneak peek into the level of care and scientific backing that goes into each and every EHB project and reveal ways to adapt to what we see as a new green movement,” notes Weiss. “The retail space also accommodates for EHB to offer furthering education and we look forward to launching a quarterly workshop series at The Evolutionary Home in January, 2015.”
To underscore their commitment to building high-performance homes, EHB also expanded their team with three new expert hires: Operations Manager, Jamie Carr, Project Manager, Patrick Danaher, and Eric Barton, Field Operations. EHB’s awards and recognitions also grew, being honored with the 2014 Green Dot Award: 1st Prize in Build Category for “Lema Passive House” as well as the Crystal Key Award for innovation and creativity in energy efficient building for the firm’s work on The Adaptation Home.
To amplify their passion for building homes that are as durable as they are healthy, sister company, Sustain-A-Building LLC, which was also founded by Weiss, became the first company in the state of Illinois certified to install the DOW POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingle, an award-winning residential solar roofing system. The installation was made in a home in Naperville, Ill. and Illinois joins 18 other states in which the product is now available.
Inspired by these new advances, Weiss set off to build a dream home of his own and is revolutionizing the idea of Passive House, currently building one of the most innovative and healthiest homes in the country, lovingly known as “Über Haus.” The first-of-its-kind, Uber Haus is a non-toxic Passive House designed to meet the world’s strictest energy efficiency and building science certification. It is seeking Living Building Challenge and LEEDv4 Platinum and would be the first in Illinois to achieve these certifications.
“This year, more than ever, brought to light how truly rewarding it can be to apply your work to your personal life,” notes Weiss. “Building this level of healthy home for my family reinforces my passion for what I do and inspires new ideas for what’s to come in 2015. We are testing an lot of new products and methods in this home and use not only as a showcase home but as a living laboratory for our work and data collection.”
Source: Evolutionary Home Builders (http://evolutionaryhomebuilders.com/).
