Developer: Sustainable homebuilding staple of future

Developer Marshall Gobuty is hard at work bringing energy efficient homes to market. But does he think other area homebuilders will also start going green?

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| 6:00 a.m. February 1, 2019
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Courtesy, Allan Mestel Photography. Marshall Gobuty is working on Hunters Point, a Manatee County development of energy-efficient homes.

Development

Green building is only getting started. That’s what developer Marshall Gobuty thinks. Says Gobuty: “I believe it will be a staple of the future.”

How does he know? Consumers. Gobuty says in the few years since he started on Mirabella, his 158-home, 55-plus community in Bradenton, buyer awareness has grown. Mirabella’s houses have earned LEED Platinum certification — the highest certification the U.S. Green Building Council offers and a mark of resource efficiency. Now, he says, more homebuyers understand the economic value of purchasing an energy-efficient house for recurring costs and resale values.

In the years ahead, Gobuty sees green building becoming more prevalent. “As millennials get older, it will be something they expect,” he says. People will ask questions about location, size and design alongside questions about a home’s sustainability and energy efficiency.

What’s next on the horizon for green building? Managing solar power, with a focus on how to capture solar energy and keep it in a home. “To be successful from a sustainability point of view, you can’t just throw up solar panels,” he says. “That’s 40% of the equation.”

Gobuty says the key to successful green building is to ensure everyone’s attention is on what matters. “The biggest challenge is to keep your trades focused on the details that are required to hit your level that you are striving for,” he says, such as LEED Platinum or Gold. “It’s one thing to say you’re going to implement it,” he says, but another thing to manage it.

The what-matters philosophy extends all the way to the jobsite Dumpster, where Gobuty says any homebuilder can find reusable materials. "The more that everybody does, the better," says Gobuty. "We’re all in this together.”

He expects other homebuilders in the area will follow his green lead —and fairly soon. “Sustainable homebuilding in five years," he says, "will be the staple."