Tradition - Hilton Head Island, SC
HGTV Green Home

HGTV could have chosen any community in the country for their Green Home...they chose Tradition Hilton Head. And for good reason. Because the site they selected needed to be as special as the home itself.  Tradition’s developers and builders are creating an environmentally responsible community that’s worthy of the advanced thinking the HGTV Green Home will display. HGTV was impressed by Tradition’s scenic Lowcountry setting featuring over 450 acres of tranquil lakes, peaceful parks and gardens, and miles of trails for biking and walking. And Tradition will be a complete town, with convenient shopping and dining, and an unmatched package of services and amenities including a luxurious Fitness Center & Spa. What’s more, each Tradition Hilton Head home will come with its own Club Car™ golf cart, providing clean, quiet transportation for all those around-town errands and visits.

Tradition will LEED where others follow

Core Communities is proud to have our own Leon Camarda as a LEED-Accredited Professional. This accreditation means that Leon has a thorough understanding of sustainable construction and can manage a project based on LEED standards.

Sounds exciting…and it is! But what, you ask, is LEED? And how will Leon’s LEED accreditation benefit Tradition residents?

LEED is an acronym you might not be familiar with just yet, but in commercial construction it’s been a major influence for the last few years – and it’s starting to shape the practices of residential construction.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. And it’s a program established by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a non-profit group composed of 10,000 member organizations from every sector of the building industry. Through LEED’s Green Building Rating System, the members are working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work.

There are specific LEED “roadmaps” for every type of construction including new commercial buildings and interiors, renovations, schools, retail and, more recently, neighborhood development and homes. The LEED Rating System is continually being refined, in some cases to reflect regional needs (for instance, while water conservation is important everywhere, it’s extremely critical in the desert Southwest).

LEED also includes a Professional Accreditation program to encourage green building expertise and that’s what led to Leon’s credential. The process to register and LEED-certify a building or project is a complex one and Leon also manages the team that accomplishes this task.

But LEED isn't the only green building program. For example, the National Association of Home Builders has a green building initiative that’s working to establish requirements for their members. Many other green programs outside of LEED are already in place. What’s important is not so much the specific program but the growing, widespread awareness of the many benefits of green construction.

Core Communities enthusiastically supports all of these efforts and, with the help of professionals like Leon, will continue to make communities like Tradition environmentally sensitive places that enhance both our lives and our world.