Green homes growing in popularity on LI

The burgeoning effort to create more energy-efficient houses has taken hold on Long Island, leaders of the "green homes" movement said at a gathering in Melville on Friday.

At the meeting of the Long Island Green Homes Consortium, officials touted programs to provide free or low-cost energy audits of existing homes and affordable financing for renovations that help homeowners reduce their energy costs.

Ten of Long Island’s 13 towns have changed building codes to encourage development of green housing, and 75 percent of the Island’s residents have switched to energy-efficient light bulbs, said Neil Lewis, executive director of the Sustainability Institute at Molloy College in Rockville Centre.

“We’ve completely changed how we build homes on Long Island,” Lewis said.

The consortium includes seven towns — Babylon, Brookhaven, Huntington, Islip, North Hempstead, Smithtown and Southampton. Other members include the Long Island Power Authority, National Grid and organizations that advocate green technology, such as the Community Development Corp. of Long Island.