LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KB Home (NYSE: KBH), one of America’s premier homebuilders, today announced a new initiative to provide the KB Home Energy Performance GuideTM or EPG – a numerical rating of a home’s energy efficiency and an estimate of monthly electric and gas costs for a home – with every new home the company sells starting this month. KB Home is the first national builder in the industry to provide such a rating for all its homes.
Similar to the miles per gallon rating or MPG, which reflects fuel efficiency and is a standard disclosure when purchasing a car, the KB Home EPG informs homeowners and prospective buyers about the relative energy efficiency of a KB home and provides them with an estimated dollar amount for monthly electric and/or gas energy costs for the home as designed. All KB homes built in the company’s communities are certified by a third party inspector confirming that the home meets the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s strict ENERGY STAR® guidelines. Based on these certifications, the homebuilder can now project the average estimated monthly energy costs for every home they build.
“For most people, buying a home is the largest and most important purchase they will ever make, and until now there has been no standard way to communicate a home’s estimated monthly energy costs,” said Jeffrey Mezger, president and chief executive officer of KB Home. "We believe providing the estimated monthly energy costs will not only empower our homebuyers, but also change the way people shop for a home. Homebuyers can now better understand the estimated energy costs for the home and potential savings by living in an energy efficient KB home.”
The KB Home EPG will be posted in all of the model homes and presented to buyers when they purchase a KB home. In addition to offering an estimate of electric and gas bills, the EPG includes a scale of relative energy efficiency that illustrates the advantage of buying a KB home over a typical new home or resale property.
For KB Home, the launch of the EPG is just the latest in a long line of innovations. The company was the first in its industry to publish an annual sustainability report and has been recognized as the number one “Green Homebuilder” in 2010 and 2008 by Calvert Investments, a leading asset management firm in the area of sustainable and responsible investing. As a committed ENERGY STAR partner since 2000, KB Home has built more than 60,000 ENERGY STAR qualified homes.
About KB Home
KB Home, one of the nation's premier homebuilders, has delivered over half a million quality homes for families since its founding in 1957. The Los Angeles-based company is distinguished by its Built to Order™ homebuilding approach that puts a custom home experience within reach of its customers at an affordable price. KB Home's award-winning home designs and communities meet the needs of first-time, move-up and active adult homebuyers. KB Home was named to FORTUNE® magazine's 2010 list of the World's Most Admired Companies for the sixth consecutive year, and ranked #1 for "Innovation" among homebuilders. The Company trades under the ticker symbol "KBH" and was the first homebuilder listed on the New York Stock Exchange. For more information about any of KB Home's new home communities, call 888-KB-HOMES or visit www.kbhome.com.