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Business World |
February 2015
68
rection for the six-year-old company.
BUILT GREEN
Implementing green initiatives as part of
their business practices has its challenges. As
influencers and thought leaders in the space,
however, Ichijo USA understands that it is
not a one-size-fits-all solution.
“In King and Snohomish County there is
a green home certification program called
Built Green. We apply the Built Green Cer-
tifications - about 4-Star and sometimes we
get 5-Star for some other projects,” Ohno
said.
Built Green is an environmental rating sys-
tem that scores 2-5 stars depending on the
number of requirements met. Ichijo USA
aims high to exceed expectations.
“Built Green 4-Star is our goal for all the
homes we build, but it sometimes exceeds
that to 5-Star and net-zero energy homes,”
Tovel added.
Harnessing technology as a means to en-
hance quality of life is something Ichijo
USA are constantly striving for. By identify-
ing issues in other parts of the world, it spurs
the company to continually innovative and
discover incentives for using its proprietary
green technology.
“As you know, in Japan they’re dealing with
the nuclear crisis so the price of energy is sig-
nificantly higher there than it is here,” Tovel
said. “There is a big incentive to take that on
and Ichijo did just that.”