Production Green Home Builder Leads With ESG

Thrive Home Builders first-ever ESG report serves as a wakeup call to the rest of the green housing industry.

ESG reporting has not been readily adopted across the homebuilding sector. Especially among smaller- or medium-sized production builders that are privately operated.Colorado’s leading high performance homebuilder, Thrive Home Builders, is attempting to reverse that trend and lead by example with the release of its inaugural 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report.

Thrive’s commitment to ESG is fueled by its desire to produce resilient, energy efficient and healthy homes for its surrounding communities in and around Denver. The company’s tagline, “Homes that do more,” aligns with its ESG vision and its commitment to build a house that benefits the environment, building occupants, and the community at large.

Thrive Home Builders’ first all-electric home communities in Denver’s Loretto Heights district, the E-PWR Lite and E-PWR Rise Collections, are pre-selling. The developments—the first two of four planned in the E-PWR series— are expected to attract homebuyers and partners, and pave the way for building innovation. Courtesy Thrive Home Builders 

“Our ESG strategy can be summed up in three steps,” says Thrive Home Builders Chief Sustainability Officer and Founder Gene Myers. “Quantify and offset our corporate carbon emissions; design and construct fossil fuel-free homes that are powered 100 percent by renewable energy; and quantify and offset the embodied carbon in the homes we build.”

Thrive has differentiated itself from other locally based, privately owned homebuilders by producing 100 percent of its dwellings to the certification standards of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Zero Energy Ready Homes (ZERH) program. All of its homes also have LEED and ENERGY STAR certifications, and are Indoor airPLUS qualified.

Thrive Home Builders’ houses are LEED and ENERGY STAR certified, ensuring that they are energy efficient and environmentally responsible. Courtesy Thrive Home Builders 

From 2013 to 2021, Thrive constructed 1,225 ZERHs, making them one of the top such builders in the U.S. 

Thrive’s dedication to energy efficiency and healthy homes has earned it several prestigious awards. In 2018, Thrive was recognized as a LEED Power Builder for its commitment to the green building movement. In 2022, for the seventh consecutive year, Thrive received the Indoor airPLUS Leader Award.

Most notably, Thrive is the exclusive builder in the U.S. to have received 12 Grand Housing Innovation Awards from DOE. Recipients of this award must demonstrate their continued resolve to develop innovative pathways to constantly improve ZERHs.

Thrive has tackled the social aspects of ESG with the same drive seen with its commitment to environmental concerns. The company has long-held beliefs that income should not be a barrier to owning an all-electric ZERH, and actively builds affordable housing units. 

Since 2008, Thrive has produced 377 affordable homes in Colorado, with the average price of all homes sold being $210,480; the national average home price nationwide was $540,000 in 2022, according to Statista Research Department.

Community-positive efforts are a significant part of Thrive’s ESG strategy. Here, the company is donating $103,000 to the Home Builders Foundation, a local nonprofit that modifies houses to make them more accessible for people with long-term physical disabilities. Courtesy Home Builders Foundation 

Thrive has also partnered with several charitable organizations such as HomeAid and the Home Builders Foundation to help at-risk community members and combat the affordable housing crisis in Denver.

The implementation of ESG has enabled Thrive to further differentiate itself from its competitors. With the release of its ESG report, Thrive has demonstrated to industry peers that identifying ESG-related material risks and developing innovative ways to address those risks is important to stakeholders, and ultimately enhances financial performance.