The October 2023 RESNET® HERS® Index Builder of the Month is Florida builder, Pearl Homes. Pearl Homes is pushing the barriers of sustainability and revolutionizing green building practices in affordable and workforce housing development projects. Founded by Marshall Gobuty, Pearl Homes focuses on building zero-energy single-family homes and multi-family units that meet at the intersection of affordability and sustainability. In this month’s feature, we asked Marshall S. Gobuty, President and founder of Pearl Homes to share some insight on building HERS® homes for their customers. Gobuty says, “HERS® rating every home allows us to leverage third-party verification to keep the quality of what we do consistent and set the standard of expectation as high as possible. It also allows us to communicate to our homeowners a simple “miles per gallon” metric for the home so that they can understand just how well they can expect their home to perform. And we are particularly excited about the inclusion of the new Carbon Index that we can share with our homeowners.” He adds, “Operational costs saved over the lifetime of a home can compound quickly – consider it a savings payment given annually to the homeowner, freeing up income otherwise spent on inefficient home operation. And as we face challenges with a changing climate, we continue to push the operational expectations of our homes. Just this past summer, we’ve seen record-high temperatures broken day after day. For homeowners, that also means record-high utility costs.” He concludes, “Every day we strive to stay ahead of the curve, ahead of future problems. As we live our mission of “Design Smart. Build Smarter,” we focus on our ever-changing climate, as well as the increasing occurrence of hurricanes and other disasters. HERS® is the only real factor when it comes to showing clear evidence of a home’s performance. There really is no other rating or comparable process. Between the HERS® score and ratings from ENERGY STAR, our homebuyers can be confident in choosing a home.” Read the full Pearl Homes profile here.
