Company Outlines Environmentally Friendly Accomplishments, Ongoing
Challenges and Commitments for the Future
KB Home (NYSE:KBH), one of America’s largest
homebuilders, today announced its first ever sustainability report,
available at www.kbhome.com/sustainability.
The KB Home Sustainability Report is a comprehensive review of
the Company’s progress toward sustainability,
identifying both ongoing initiatives and operational challenges, as well
as KB Home’s future commitments and actions.
“Our business requires a delicate balance
between the societal need for affordably priced new homes and the
environmental need to use our limited natural resources wisely,”
said Jeffrey Mezger, president and chief executive officer of KB Home. “The
opportunities for KB Home to make a measurable impact in this area are
immense, and we are committed to making sustainability an integral part
of how we do business.”
In 2007, KB Home launched its My Home. My Earth.™
strategic environmental initiative, which focuses on ways the Company
can become a leading environmentally friendly national company while
creating a companywide culture of sustainability. The Company’s
inaugural sustainability report is an important step in that process.
The report details KB Home’s perspective on
the environment, how it empowers homebuyers to participate in
sustainability, and initiatives undertaken in 2007 that advanced the
Company’s sustainability commitments.
In compiling the report, the company followed the Global Reporting
Initiative (GRI) Guidelines. GRI is considered by many to be the current
standard framework for sustainability reporting, providing a high level
of accountability and transparency.
More than 85% of the total energy consumption during a home’s
life cycle stems from the energy used in day-to-day living. KB Home’s
greatest opportunity to reduce the carbon footprint of its homes is to
provide energy-efficient features and educate homebuyers about how to
conserve energy over the lifetime of their homes.
From 2001 through 2007, KB Home built 53,541 highly energy-efficient
homes, including 44,136 ENERGY STAR®
qualified homes and 9,405 ComfortWise®
certified homes. According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
formulas, these homes reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 140,000
metric tons annually, estimated to be equivalent to removing over 26,000
cars from our roads each year.
