Aaron Yoder 鈥�01 owns ., a Harrisonburg home construction and remodeling company that uses the EarthCraft House program. Compared to conventional building, EarthCraft House projects generate less waste during construction, require less energy for climate control and demand less ongoing maintenance. A M Yoder & Co. applies these techniques to a wide variety of houses. The company can build a home that uses 40 percent less energy, and an 8,000-square-foot luxury home that is far less resource-intensive than a conventionally built mansion.

Benjamin Meredith 鈥�92 is owner and president of (Harrisonburg), which conducts home and small business energy audits to identify the best ways to reduce energy consumption. It also provides third-party verification for homes built to Energy Star or EarthCraft green building standards. Meredith uses construction expertise and specialized equipment 鈥� duct blasters, infrared cameras 鈥� to understand and improve a building鈥檚 energy usage. 鈥淩esidential buildings consume approximately 22 percent of the energy consumed in the United States,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t is my job to help people figure out how they can reduce their energy consumption footprint.鈥�

Bradley Yoder 鈥�02 is project adviser for , based in Durham, North Carolina. It builds all its new homes to the of the . Smart and efficient homes, Yoder says, are a key part of living well-balanced lives: 鈥淚f you鈥檙e careful about building [people鈥檚] homes responsibly, efficiently and healthily, [they] are better equipped to do what they want with their lives.鈥� One of Bradley鈥檚 colleagues, John Price, class of 鈥�76, is the 鈥渂uild lead鈥� at Build Sense, overseeing several of the company鈥檚 construction crews. Through another company, Carolina X Wall, Yoder also sells insulating concrete forms, an efficient and eco-friendly building material.

In Fulks Run, Virginia, Heather Bauman 鈥�04 and Justin Thomas Yoder, class of 鈥�03, live in a passive solar house, with supplementary heat from a masonry stove. It has a lightcolored metal roof to ward off summer heat. Built by Justin and his father, Kenton E. Yoder, the house stays comfortable during summers without air conditioning, says Heather.