When Affordable Housing Goes Green

Habitat for Humanity International is already a great organization, with how it gets people involved in building affordable houses for others. Now, it's gone and done something even better — building houses that are also environmentally friendly.

The nonprofit has partnered with The Home Depot Foundation to expand the Partners in Sustainable Building program. According to the PR Newswire press release, the national expansion will take place over five years to help build 5,000 sustainable homes. In the pilot program, which began last year, Habitat built more than 260 homes that met certain green building standards. You can find a list of some of these homes' benefits or features on the press release.

There were more than 120 Habitat affiliates across the country chosen to take part in the starting phase of the $30 million green building program, which starts the end of this month. These locations will get money based on building houses to Energy Star standards ($3,000) and a higher green standard (up to $5,000). By the end of 2010, 1,500 homes will have been built.

The Home Depot Foundation, established in 2002, is committed to "building affordable homes for working families that are healthy to live in and affordable to own," so the partnership with Habitat is right in their wheelhouse. This particular partnership is the first between the two at a national level — and something tells me it might not be the last.

Photo courtesy of FirstBaptistNashville via Flickr.