solar hero | profiling the unsung solar champions
EVAN T. LITTLE | CoSta MeSa, CaliF.
“In 10 or 15 years, Evan Little, now 26, grew up in Mission Viejo, Calif. He was tudying drafting and computer-aided design at a junior college in Mission Viejo, with the idea of becoming an
localities should
architect, when he decided he was more interested in the mar-
make the energy
keting side of sustainable home development. In 2007, he got
his real estate license and set up as an “eco-broker.”
audit mandatory,”
Little was also keenly interested in conservative politics
and began going to meetings in support of presidential candi-
he says. “That
date Ron Paul. Impressed by Meetup.com, the website used by
Paul’s campaign to organize meetings and rallies, he used the
would create a lot
tool to find groups dedicated to eco-friendly housing. In 2007,
of entrepreneurial
he attended the American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar
Tour in nearby Escondido and Murrieta. “I was impressed by the
jobs in auditing and
passion of the homeowners but discouraged by the distance
between the sites,” he said. “I could see that the tour needed
energy upgrading.”
some marketing help.”
Thus began a two-year personal campaign to raise the
green consciousness of Orange County. Little signed up to organize a Costa Mesa Solar Tour for 2008 and created a website to
support it ( costamesasolartour.com). He put together a Meetup
group to promote green events in Orange County. He launched
a chapter of Green Drinks International ( greendrinks.org), pulling together as many as 100 people a month for happy hours
jaSoN SCheurer
sponsored by local businesses. He built a blog, gogreenorange
county.blogspot.com, to promote green building issues.
And he began a campaign to erase some of the barriers
to the efficient sale of energy-efficient housing. “Appraisers
aren’t allowed to use the added value of energy-efficient features in calculating the value of a home,” he points out. “They’re
required by law to use only comparable sales. It means, for
instance, that LEED certification and green build practices have
no market value. That should change, but in an effort to keep
costs down, the California Association of Realtors has blocked
all efforts to fix it.”
Little wants the Multiple Listing Service to include
information on whether a home has had an energy audit or
energy upgrades. He wants a disclosure at the point of sale
regarding the existence of an energy audit. “In 10 or 15 years,
localities should make the energy audit mandatory,” he says.
“That would create a lot of entrepreneurial jobs in auditing and
energy upgrading. Right now, if you did this, there wouldn’t
be enough trained people to do the work. The Green Building
Council has an opportunity to address the problem of how to
sell the energy-efficient house.”
“It’s a big problem, but an easy solution,” Little says.
— seth masia
