Foundation Communities is deeply committed to building and managing affordable housing that is rooted in sustainable principles. We choose to engage sustainability as a conceptual practice that addresses “green building” methods in order to improve the health of our residents, the durability of our buildings and the well-being of our environment. Further, we can directly impact the economic fitness of our residents’ lives by reducing utility bills through energy and water efficiency design elements.

Since 2003, we have incorporated numerous “green building” design elements into all new construction and renovation projects, winning grants from Enterprise Community Partners’ Green Communities program and the Kresge Foundation’s innovative green building program. Some of the design elements we’ve implemented with great success include:

• Energy Efficiency – roof-mounted water heating and photovoltaic systems (solar electric panels and solar thermal panels), high SEER air conditioning units, solar screens, fluorescent and compact fluorescent (CFL) lighting, occupancy sensors for lighting
• Water Conservation – Low flow plumbing fixtures, water-wise landscaping, rainwater harvesting
• Healthy Living Environment – Low-VOC paint, adhesives and sealants; formaldehyde-free products; converting a parking lot into a courtyard garden
• Conserving Resources – 75 percent of construction waste is salvaged or recycled,  where possible we use materials made from renewable resources (ceramic tile, carpet, wheatboard)

The community learning center at Trails at Vintage Creek Apartments earned a 2-star rating and a $4,000 sustainability bonus from the City of Austin’s Green Building Program. Green features of this two-story center in northeast Austin include building orientation, lighting with occupancy sensors, wheatboard cabinetry and engineering to pre-cool air intake.

Spring Terrace, Skyline Terrace and the new 15-unit expansion to Garden Terrace, our supportive housing communities, include the most green features of any of our communities to date. To learn more about how we transformed a former hotel, for example, into a green community for very low-income and homeless individuals, download our Green Home Guide here.