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When Tim Polito set out to build his third custom home, he decided to go for the greenest label out there — LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) home certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The result — Pima County's first certified "silver" LEED home — is not a straw-bale bungalow with a bus stop nearby.

It's a stick-and-stucco house with 4,000 square feet under roof, 30 miles west of the center of Tucson on one of the few paved roads of Picture Rocks, near Saguaro National Park.

Polito recognizes that a large home, far from employment centers and shopping, might not be everybody's idea of "green." He'd love to build small, he said, but custom builders can't compete in the entry-home market with production builders.

"If I'm going to build any kind of home, I feel it should be a green home."

A similar rationale is at work on the eastern edge of Tucson, where Pepper Viner is "going Green" according to its ads, by building its Civano North Ridge homes with heating and cooling systems that use half the energy required by current codes.

Down the street from North Ridge, Doucette is starting two subdivisions that, like Pepper-Viner, aim to qualify for tax credits by meeting the stringent EPAct energy standards outlined in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

All the homes accomplish their goals without straw bales, rammed earth, foam-impregnated wall systems, perfect solar orientation or electricity-producing solar panels.

Conventional, production housing is going green.

Anthony Floyd, the city of Scottsdale's green-building coordinator, said his city's voluntary green program was used on 35 percent of the homes built there over the past two years.

Over time, its requirements will become part of general practice, said Floyd.

In Pima County, builders are sitting down with code enforcers and other interested parties to develop standards for building green in a desert climate. The Southern Arizona Home Builders Association has formed a Green Build Council, to which Polito belongs, and the National Association of Home Builders will roll out its program early next year.

Polito's home in Picture Rocks is part of a pilot LEED residential program patterned after the Green Building Council's successful LEED program for larger buildings.

It has passed all its tests to gain a silver rating, said Richard Zimmerman of Sonoran LEED for Homes, which contracts with the Green Building Council to designate homes in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada as LEED platinum, gold, silver or certified.

Polito is a remodeler-turned-custom-builder. He knew his homes were well built and energy-efficient, but he wanted a program to prove that and teach him more about the process.

Polito used materials manufactured nearby and bought flooring and cabinets low in volatile organic compounds. He found carpet and granite countertops of recycled components.

He outlined a "no disturbance" zone on the construction site, used permeable paving for his driveway and replanted any removed vegetation into a channel at the edge of the property that will receive intermittent floods from a "gray-water" cistern fed by the washing machine and the bathroom sinks, tubs and showers.

The roof is designed to hold solar electric panels and the house is wired to tie them into the electric grid. A solar thermal system on the roof heats water for the home. The house is insulated to the rafters with a spray-on foam product called Icynene, which means that the attic ductwork and heat exchanger don't need to work as hard.

The walls are wrapped and sealed beneath the stucco with more Icynene and foam linings for the windows and doors. Exterior glass is double-paned, low heat-transfer (low-emissivity, or "low E") and shielded by porches or overhangs.

Counting porch space and three-car garage, the home, listed at $520,000, is about 4,000 square feet, with 3,000 feet of enclosed living space.

Polito figures he spent $3,500 on the certification process itself and green requirements added $40,000 to the home's cost.

At Pepper-Viner's subdivision on the northern edge of the New Urban village of Civano, the goal was simpler — energy reduction — but the execution a bit more complicated.

Construction manager Richard Barna, also a member of the Green Build Council, said it's difficult to bring new construction techniques to production housing.

He had to create special language for his agreements with subcontractors, hire a trainer to teach the various trades on the job to work together and follow behind them to make certain they didn't miss anything.

He found unsealed spaces behind tubs and fireplaces, unneeded vents in heater closets and extra framing on non-bearing walls that should have been insulation-filled cavities.

He even made a personal trip to Home Depot for compact fluorescent bulbs after his electrical contractor told him that they would cost $14 each from the regular supplier. He paid $3.

Barna said he initially had to persuade the executive committee of Pepper-Viner to go greener, but the company now plans to apply the techniques developed at Civano North Ridge to future projects.

Price was persuasive. The cost of extra insulation, wrapping and zoned thermostats was partially offset by downsizing the heating and cooling units. The homes then qualified for a $2,000 EPAct tax credit.

"It ends up costing a little more, but it's not significant," Barna said.

More importantly, Barna said, saving energy improved quality. The foam wrapping that makes the double-paned, low E windows fit tightly also works against leaks and mold, he said. Homes won't have cold and hot spots and the air inside them will be cleaner.

Tom Doucette, whose company is just starting its EPAct homes at Civano, said those attributes convinced him. "It's great we're saving energy," he said. "The other factor is we're building houses that are healthier and more durable."

Barna said he doesn't see green building falling off just because the market has hit a slump. "The cost of borrowing money is at an all-time low. Energy costs are at an all-time high and certain to go higher."

Pepper Viner's homes range from 1,464 to 2,627 square feet and cost $279,900 to $357,900.