Mark Baker is the President of Mark Baker, LLC and has
over 30 years of construction experience in Brevard
County, Florida. Mark Baker, LLC is also the builder
of Florida’s Showcase Green Envirohome (FSGE).
In a period of 11 months, Mark Baker, from the Space
Coast of Florida, and his wife, Nonnie Chrystal, from
the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, suffered the aftermath of
Hurricanes Frances, Jeanne and Katrina. These
hurricanes devastated both sides of their families
with “complete and total loss” of three homes,
including Mark’s mother’s home in Indialantic,
Florida, and Nonnie’s parents’ home and sister’s home
in New Orleans, Louisiana.
On September 4, 2004 and September 26, 2004,
respectively, Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne left a
path of destruction in Indialantic, located on a
barrier island in the Atlantic Ocean on the central
part of Florida’s East Coast. In that path
unfortunately was the beachside home of Mark’s elderly
mother, who Fortunately fled for safety in enough time.
After such trauma and with Betty’s blessing, Mark, a
construction veteran and former member of Greenpeace,
and Nonnie, with 21+ years of marketing and sales
experience (mostly with Fortune 50 companies in the
healthcare sector), decided to create Florida’s
Showcase Green Envirohome (FSGE), a rebuild of Betty’s
home. This made for an excellent team at the outset,
but Nonnie’s 30+ years of overlapping healthcare
background in conventional, complementary and
alternative medicine coupled with Mark and Nonnie’s
relentless research and pioneering diligence for the
last 3½ years in green building and green living
technologies are reasons behind FSGE standing out from
the rest of other green projects around the world.
FSGE plans to meet or exceed 12 major sets of green
building guidelines and obtain 8 certifications,
including USGBC Platinum LEED and Fortified…for safer
living. FSGE is a two-story, 3292 sq.ft. “Near
Zero-Loss Home™”, “Near Zero-Energy Home”, "Near
Zero-Runoff Home™", and “Near Zero-Maintenance
Home™”. It is spawned from the consumer-driven
necessity to build a home resistant to hurricanes,
tornadoes, floods, fire, mold, termites, impacts, and
even earthquakes given up to 500% increase in
insurance premiums in natural disaster zones, the
dwindling flexibility and coverage of insurance
policies, and rising energy, water and maintenance
costs. The good news is that those deciding to build
“green” are being rewarded by increased real estate
value, insurance companies’ lowered premiums,
immediate reductions in energy, water and maintenance
bills, increased government tax
breaks/incentives/grants, utility companies’ credit
offerings for solar, wind, and other types of consumer
generated power, and mortgage companies’ lowered
interest rates.
During Hurricane Frances, Betty’s home suffered severe
wind-driven rain damage to the roof most likely
catalyzed by tornado offshoots (see Roof Damage Photos). This
allowed deluges to pour into the entire home. Because
emergency water extraction guidelines were not
conducted in a timely fashion, the standing water
caused massive amounts of mold (which only needs 72
hours to incubate!) to begin growing throughout the
home. With Hurricane Jeanne having compounded further
damage, by the time FEMA (Federal Emergency Management
Association) arrived on October 31, 2004, the roof was
documented as “beyond repair”. With monies for
repairs grossly delayed by the insurance company, it
was no surprise that by March 15, 2005 the Department
of Health’s Survey Report documented this home and all
of the personal property contained within it as a
“complete and total loss”. This report also
disclosed that the home was “untenable” posing a
“distinct health risk” and that entry should be
restricted to those wearing personal protective
equipment and having a valid reason to be there. In
other words, if the county in which Betty’s home
resides had had such an ordinance, the property would
have been condemned (see Black Mold Damage Photos)
So in this rebuilding effort there was a need to
properly remediate the deadly toxicity of this black
mold. With Betty’s future safety being paramount to
Mark, it was not long before he decided to research
better building practices. Nonnie, who is also Vice
President of Mark Baker, LLC, suggested they attend a
green building conference in May of 2005. There Mark
realized that builders had not really updated any of
their construction methods since the 1940s, when roof
truss systems were introduced, and other much more
logical approaches were being presented that he felt
he could easily incorporate. One woman Mark and Nonnie
met at the conference drove a thousand miles to
research the facts behind why the only two houses left
standing on Florida’s coastline after one of the
hurricanes in 2004, were the only ones that were built
“green".
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated
Nonnie’s parents’ home and her sister’s home in New
Orleans. Similar to Betty’s situtation, these two
homes too were a “complete and total loss”, and
thankfully all of Nonnie’s family left for safety in
enough time. After two family tragedies in less than
a year, Mark and Nonnie both became even more
passionate about helping the world mitigate the
affects of myriad natural disasters, obviate the need
for filing an insurance claim, and lower insurance
premiums, energy, water and maintenance costs, while
considering the health of the human body and the
sustainability of the planet.
And maybe things really do happen in “three’s”. On
July 27, 2007, Betty and Mark lost a significant
amount of personal property in a massive fire
encompassing a 70,000 square foot storage facility,
only a few miles from FSGE, where they were
temporarily storing her belongings until the
completion of FSGE. Had this storage facility been
built “green”, which inherently incorporates
fire-resistance throughout a given building design,
this fire could have been mitigated, if not prevented.
This event only inspired Mark and Nonnie further to
make people aware of FSGE’s educational awareness
project. Regarding fire resistance, FSGE’s exterior
walls have been built with Class-1, non-combustible
fire-rated Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs). FSGE
is also the first building in the world to showcase a
special, non-toxic “fire inhibitor” coating on all
interior wood inside the home, an unsurpassed category
entirely different from a simple “fire retardant”.
A plethora of green technologies are available today
that are far superior to mainstream, older, more
comfortable construction techniques. But the builder,
or the consumer/investor/developer/architect/engineer
driving the builder, needs to be aware of these
technologies before a building project begins, they
can be less expensive short term and/or long term for
everyone involved while simultaneously improving the
safety and health of the tenants and minimizing
negative impact to the earth.
Multi-billion dollar megatrends indicate that
consumers want “green” in order to have a voice in
their insurance premiums as well as in the consumption
of energy and water. They want a home that requires
lower maintenance and offers a safer, healthier
environment while taking responsibility for their
footprint and giving back to the earth. But the key
to mass change is to highlight where the money is in
building green.
Recent studies show consumers are willing to pay
11-25% more for “green” residential real estate and
$61-$171/sq.ft more for “green” commercial real
estate; “green” rental rates are
$2.40-$11.33/sq.ft. higher with a 3.6%-4.1% higher
occupancy; “green” real estate has significantly
lower operating costs; and “green” healthcare trends
are clear: the popular demand for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapies was demonstrated
by the 1997 National Household Survey in which total
visits to CAM providers (629 million) exceeded the
total number of visits to all primary care physicians
(386 million) in the U.S. in 1997. The 2002 Veteran
Affairs (VA) CAM report showed that 84% of facilities
are now providing some form of CAM. In other words,
“green building” will fall short if it does not
address the growing masses and importance behind
“green living".
With FSGE’s commitment to so many green building
guidelines and dozens of “best of the best”
sponsors, including direct manufacturers, it is clear
that FSGE is working with the experts. By combining
this expertise with Mark and Nonnie’s collective
proficiency in construction, healthcare, and
marketing, they have ensured the greatest possible
accuracy in implementing and integrating so many green
innovations into one project. As a result, FSGE has
afforded them invaluable, comprehensive knowledge and
experience to the point where they are creating their
own green living guidelines in order to fill in the
gaps -- namely, Health Gems Home & Business
Environment Quality.
For the doubting or even curious consumers, investors,
developers, architects, engineers, builders,
environmentalists, kindergarten through college
students, media, banks, insurance companies,
healthcare professionals, businesses, organizations,
government, etc. out there, FSGE, when complete, will
provide one year of scheduled walkthroughs to the
public at no charge in this “Affordable &
Rewardable™” high-efficiency, green prototype,
first-of-its-kind test site—with people actually
living there—in order to provide “proof of
performance” data.
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