Press Release:

THE HOME DEPOT FOUNDATION PRESENTS AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE AT U.S. GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL CONFERENCE - See RDI Press Release

ATLANTA, Nov. 10, 2005 - The Home Depot® Foundation presented its Awards of Excellence for Affordable Housing Built Responsibility at the GreenBuild International Conference & Expo sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council today. Rural Development, Inc. of Turner Falls, Massachusetts received the award in the Homeownership category, and Housing Vermont from Burlington, Vermont won the award in the Rental-Housing category. Each award winner received a grant of $75,000.

The winners were selected from projects submitted by nonprofit housing developers throughout the country. An advisory committee of experts from a variety of affordable housing, community development, building sciences and environmental organizations participated in the selection process. The committee included representatives of organizations such as the US Green Building Council, the National Association of Home Builders Research Center, the Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, Southface, Global Green USA and Tellus Institute.

Housing Vermont managed $7.2 million Waterfront Housing initiative overlooking Lake Champlain in downtown Burlington, Vermont. The building design for this 40-unit development included one-, two- and three-bedroom units, required extensive brownfield site remediation and incorporated such features as high efficiency building envelope, hardwood flooring manufactured and extracted within 500 miles of the project, state-of-the-art storm water run-off treatment system, advanced heating and cooling systems, and direct line of site to daylight for over 90% of occupied space. This housing development is LEED-NC certified. The national runner-up in the Rental-Housing category was First Community Housing from San Jose, CA. They received a grant of $25,000.

Rural Development built five houses through its Affordable Green Homes project located throughout rural Franklin County Massachusetts. The building design incorporated advanced framing techniques, state of the art hydronic heating systems, recycled and natural content building materials, and photovoltaic systems that generate a significant portion of each homes' energy needs. The national runner-up in the Homeownership category is Claretian Associates, Inc. from Chicago, IL. Claretian received a grant of $25,000.

"Our primary mission is to encourage the production of healthy and efficient homes that are affordable over the long term for people of low to moderate incomes to own and operate," said Kelly Caffarelli, executive director of The Home Depot Foundation. "We created the Awards of Excellence for Affordable Housing Built Responsibly program to identify, recognize and showcase the outstanding and innovative work being done by nonprofit housing developers. Our hope is that by sharing information about how the Award winners successfully combined affordability with healthy, sustainable measures, we will not only offer insight, but also inspiration, to others developing housing for those of modest means."
The Home Depot Foundation was created in 2002 to further the community building goals of the The Home Depot by providing additional resources to assist nonprofit organizations building affordable, efficient and healthy homes throughout the United States and Canada. The Home Depot Foundation administers grant-making programs in the areas of "Affordable Housing, Built Responsibly" and "Healthy Community and Wildland Forests." Since its formation, The Home Depot Foundation has granted more than $15 million to nonprofit and government organizations throughout North America.

For more information, please contact: Ron DeFeo, The Home Depot, 770/384-3179.