Wall Street: No large public home builder is "fully green"

Investment firm Calvert just released a report ranking the leading top home builders on the extent to which they have “fully embraced the emerging market of sustainable building design and construction.” Here's the ranking, from most green to least:

1. K.B. Home, Los Angeles
2. D.R. Horton, Fort Worth, Texas (tied for second)
2. Pulte, Bloomfield Hills, Mich. (tied for second)
4. Centex, Dallas
5. Lennar, Miami
6. Ryland, Calabasas, Calif.
7. Beazer, Atlanta
8. Meritage, Scottsdale, Ariz.
9. Toll Brothers, Horsham, Pa.
10. K. Hovnanian, Red Bank, N.J.
11. MDC Holdings, Denver
12. Standard Pacific, Irvine, Calif.
13. NVR Inc., Reston, Va.

The report's fairly pessimistic conclusion ...

“Our survey of the 13 largest publicly traded U.S. homebuilders finds that, while every major homebuilder has incorporated some environmental and efficiency programs and products into some of their new homes, none has fully embraced the emerging market of sustainable building design and construction.”

Fast Money looks at green retailing

Fast Money, a CNBC finance show, is doing a "Captain Planet" series on green investing. The April 23 episode dealt with green retailing and mentioned Wal-Mart, Costco, and JC Penney -- nothing home improvement related, more's the pity. To me, the point is that Wall Street types are starting to take this stuff (somewhat) seriously.