The not-quite-finished home on Rainbow Road, not far from Bradley Airport in Windsor, has the unmistakable scent of fresh paint. The trim four-bedroom sits in a row with three other identical Habitat for Humanity homes — all, at first glance, functional and no-frills.

But they’re actually a lot more than that.

These houses represent the leading edge of energy efficiency and the move away from fossil fuel use in construction. Once solar is added to their roofs, these homes will be at or near net-zero for greenhouse gas emissions. Such potential speaks to the state’s ability to address what now constitutes its second-largest, and growing, category of greenhouse gas emissions — building emissions.

In fact, the state’s newly released updated Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory shows that for the first time, just the residential sector — never mind commercial and industrial buildings — has replaced the electric sector as the state’s second-largest emitter after transportation.

Furthermore, the fact that Habitat built budget-conscious, emissions-free homes that are accessible to financially-challenged owners may well be a significant indicator that such design and construction is no longer the domain of wealthy homeowners.

Yes, they cost a little more to build — about 10% more — said Kris McKelvie, director of construction for Habitat’s North Central Connecticut office, which means Habitat has to raise more money. “If we raise a little bit more we could save them hundreds of thousands of dollars in their lifetime and potentially for generations,” he said.

McKelvie helped create the concept for the Habitat homes in 2017 and has overseen construction of eight since then, with 16 planned over the next three years — six in Hartford and 10 in East Hartford.

But the ability to build them does not necessarily mean the state has the willingness to make sure it happens.

Until recently the state has invested little effort or money in lowering building emissions. So McKelvie, like others, has had to figure it out on his own. He’s been helped somewhat by federal programs and the Biden administration’s funding, as well as searching out ideas from initiatives in other states.

McKelvie is unlikely to get much help from this legislature. Several bills, including one proposed by the governor, that would have addressed building emissions more substantively are now dead or gutted. That leaves only a recent change to the state building code as a guidepost.

Environment Committee Co-Chair Sen. Rick Lopes, D-New Britain, is likely used to such failure — having been unsuccessful in his former role as co-chair of the Housing Committee in getting the legislature to ban fossil fuel use for things like heat, hot water and cooking in new construction.

This session, he said, the hearing testimony was clear. “The changes didn’t quite make sense and needed more work,” he said.

Part of what may be hampering more robust action is that most folks — legislators included — have only a vague idea of what building emissions are. It’s not as if buildings have tailpipes, like cars, right?

“There absolutely is a tailpipe on a building,” said Melissa Kops, laughing.

Kops wears several hats — she’s an architect who is a project manager for the City of New Haven, a volunteer and former board member of the Connecticut Green Building Council, and is actively involved with the current push to legislate ways to lower building emissions. But if you don’t know what building emissions are, curbing them becomes even harder. The fact that they involve a multi-layered set of factors relating to climate change probably doesn’t make anything easier.

Addressing building emissions involves more than energy efficiency, insulation, electric heat pumps, solar panels and no longer using natural gas. And, contrary to the recent culture wars — it does not involve someone coming to get your gas stove.

At least not yet.

ctmirror.org