C2C Home, which is designed to promote sustainable building, has drawn widespread interest among builders, suppliers, manufacturers and others in the Roanoke Valley.

Among them are two young Roanoke entrepreneurs, Chad Braby and Jeremy Werness, who have formed their own "green" home-building firm as an offshoot of C2C Home.

Their company, Sustainable Building Concepts, is constructing a 1,200-square-foot energy-efficient house in the 1300 block of Morningside Street next to Jackson Park in Southeast Roanoke.

Braby, 32, a commercial general contractor with an Ohio-based company, and Werness, 31, a former residential builder superintendent with J.M. Turner, decided to join forces last year after discussing sustainable building at a backyard party in their Raleigh Court neighborhood.

"We looked at who was doing green building in Roanoke, but no one was," Braby said.

They did several renovation projects, some green and some traditional, before deciding to buy a vacant lot and build an eco-friendly house in an effort to expand their business.

Their Morningside Street house will not be a "dark green" house, the term for homes with a full array of environmentally friendly features, because they don't have the capital yet for such an investment.

But the "light green" house will have fiber cement siding, reduced construction waste and energy-efficient windows, insulation, appliances and heating and cooling.

The house is being built to standards of Energy Star, a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy designed to protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.

The house, which has mountain views, should go on the market next month for about $125,000, or just a few thousand dollars more than it would cost if the house were of traditional construction. Those extra costs can be recouped in a few years through lower energy bills, Braby said.

He and Werness hope to eventually build houses to order with even more green features.

Melody Williams, executive vice president of the Roanoke Regional Home Builders Association, said green building has a small but growing presence in the Roanoke Valley.

She said more environmentally friendly homes likely will be built as Virginia's builders, consumers and governments learn more about green technology, materials, costs and benefits.

Environmentally friendly building has become a multimillion-dollar industry nationwide in recent years.

Gov. Tim Kaine kicked off a statewide green-building program last week in Charlottesville that is designed to promote sustainable construction in Virginia.

"I don't think people here are resistant to it, but the technology is continuing to develop and we're learning from other communities that are experimenting with it," Williams said.

Braby said he expects the Roanoke Valley to one day join Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, and other communities that have embraced sustainable building.

"A lot of builders don't think the demand is there, but we do," he said. "It doesn't take too much to go green."

On the Net: www.sbconcepts.net