Area carpentry and electrician students have their hands full, building a green house — not to be confused with a greenhouse.

The students are crafting the green — as in eco-friendly — home in Austin as part of their training, and they received a boost for their efforts Friday.

Austin Utilities gave a $20,000 check to the Riverland Community College Carpentry program to be used for the construction of their first green home.

Each year, Riverland’s carpentry technology and construction electrician students construct a home as a learning opportunity. They build and wire the home under supervision and in cooperation with local sub-contractors and the home enters the market at the end of the school year through a bidding process.

This year’s home, located at 1404 29th St. SW, is registered with Minnesota GreenStar, a residential building standards and certification program that promotes healthy, durable, high-performance design and construction. To be GreenStar certified, the home will pass a third-party verification process.

“Building a home with energy efficiency in mind provides the greatest long term value to the homeowner,” said Kelly Lady, energy services consultant of Austin Utilities.

Green aspects of the home include hardwood flooring and tile throughout; special open-cell foam insulation; a rain barrel for ready-to-go self-sufficient irrigation; low energy electrical wiring; impervious or drainable concrete; cement-board siding; completely-sealed heating; a three-sided fireplace; and green plumbing materials.

“Learning these green principles in construction will make our carpentry [students] more marketable when they graduate and seek employment,” said Walt Alms, carpentry instructor. “We are incorporating a number of techniques into this year’s home project and Austin Utilities’s donation will help us reach these goals.”

MN Greenstar Homes have more than 100 homes registered in the state to meet their standards of energy efficiency, resource efficiency, water conservation, indoor environmental quality and site and community impact.

The home will be completed by spring graduation. An open house will be scheduled in April.