One clue that people have been putting their expertise and hearts into a project is that they've been around long enough to get nicknames.

Ken Wood and Ken Winer are "K-1" and "K-2." Berta Tavlin is the "canary in the mine shaft."

She got her nickname because she's sensitive to toxic chemicals used in standard building materials.

The three are the volunteer heart and soul of Boise Valley Habitat for Humanity's "green team."

Habitat's Boise office opened in 1990. Since then, the office and its hundreds of volunteers have built 50 houses in the belief that helping others build and buy decent shelter is a question of "conscience and action."

Dennis McCoy, "green team" construction manager, said about 30 people make up the volunteer core group. Each new project, or "build," that takes place over about three months of Saturdays brings in hundreds more people from the community - everyone from individuals who sign up on their own to teams from local businesses and organizations.

Tom Lay, executive director of Boise Valley Habitat, said the organization welcomes volunteers with all levels of building knowledge.

The contributions of the green team, though, have been extraordinary.

Like Habitat's international office, the Boise office has committed to green building - environmentally sound, and healthy for inhabitants - for all future projects.

Over the course of their years with Habitat - 10 for Wood, five for Winer (in the Treasure Valley alone; two more in Maryland), and three for Tavlin - they've become self-made experts on cutting-edge, environmental building materials and techniques.

"The green team gives unbelievable numbers of hours," Lay said.

"They come with fresh ideas, differences of opinion. They do the research to find out what things are worth doing, which are not, in order to keep homes affordable for families," McCoy said.

The team took on Habitat's most recent green build, a home for the Okeny family, former Sudanese refugees.

"The team explored what green building means for construction, how it integrates into Habitat's mission," Lay said.

The build used a lot of the green team's ideas, he added, especially those to improve air quality inside the house. There's no petroleum-based carpeting inside, and no toxic paint or adhesives, among other green features.

The Okenys' house is currently up for a prestigious honor - LEED platinum certification.

LEED - Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. LEED platinum is a high rank for environmental building, and one that's rare for a residential structure, Lay said.

"We're waiting to see. But the fact is that without Ken Wood, Ken Winer and Berta Tavlin, we wouldn't be where we are now," he said.

While their knowledge of all things nontoxic and energy-efficient is formidable, the main thing about the members of the team is that they're generous with their time, patience and spirit, Lay said.

"That's the first thing. I look up to them," he said.

GREEN & KINDRED SPIRITS

On a recent Saturday morning, the green team met up at Boise Valley Habitat for Humanity ReStore, a treasure trove for builders and remodelers looking for bargains. The store sells usable items, from window frames to bags of grout, that would have ended up in a landfill.

Winer wore his Habitat cap and T-shirt, Wood a pair of professorial glasses. Tavlin sported a Buddhist prayer bracelet. "When you move your arm, you send peace out into the world," she explained.

The trio exuded nothing so much as capability - right off.

Were you, say, putting together a wagon train to cross the Rockies, you would want the two Kens and Berta along for the ride - in case an axle broke or the firewood got wet.

The members of the green team became friends years ago at a Habitat construction site. They shared an enthusiasm for recycling - even before green was cool - and recognized they were kindred spirits.

They shake their heads and look disapprovingly when the subject of construction-site waste comes up. The green team salvaged 230 pounds of cardboard from the Okeny house site alone for recycling.

Tavlin, who runs a resource center for nursing students at Boise State when she's not volunteering, is known as the green team's head researcher.

Winer and Wood had more hands-on building experience than she did, so researching became her way to contribute.

She's now the keeper of a somewhat infamous notebook. It's as thick as three phone books and filled with articles on air quality in garages, laminated floors vs. tile - and anything else that might come up during the green team's regular brain storms.

Tavlin was part of an earlier green team, at Boise State, one of the first groups to start talking about sustainability on campus. She said her volunteer work with a food program for homeless people in California, and interests in voluntary simplicity, led naturally into her work with Habitat.

She got involved with the group after asking her best friends to accompany her to a Habitat orientation meeting in lieu of a birthday present.

Winer, a retired school psychologist, became an adamant recycler back in the 1970s, when a co-worker started a recycling center.

"It was close to the house. We would go regularly. We got used to it," he said.

Green runs in the family. His daughter, Rachel Winer, is the executive director of Idaho Smart Growth.

He finds joy in the camaraderie of Habitat.

"To see a completed house. It's clean, the families who are moving in are dressed up," Winer said. "But we can go back to all of the pictures in our minds. To all of the work."

Wood was a real estate appraiser before he retired, and cut his construction teeth building his parents' dream home.

"You learn by default," he said dryly.

He became interested in Habitat after his daughter heard a speech by Millard Fuller, the man who founded Habitat for Humanity International in the 1970s. She suggested that Wood give volunteering a try. He did, and came down with what he calls "infectious Habitatitis." He's worked on around 30 houses, he estimated.

Without Habitat, he wouldn't know what to do with his Saturdays, he quipped, before admitting that "there's something rewarding about seeing the results of your efforts, a bare piece of land becoming a floor deck, then walls, then a roof."

Seeing families move into the houses is "very emotional," he added, "for the families, but also for the volunteers."

A FAMILY COMES HOME

The Okeny family - Paul and Regina, who fled Sudan as refugees in 1993, and their five children, Grace, 15, Salome, 13, Charles, 9, Jennifer, 7, and Jonah, 1 - moved into their new Habitat house this fall.

When Paul and Regina Okeny come home from their jobs as housekeepers, he at Eagle Elementary School and she at St. Luke's hospital, they open the door to a house that's kept snug by walls containing recycled plastics, metal from recycled cars, and triple-paned windows.

The counters and cabinets in their kitchen are formaldehyde-free. The paint is nontoxic.

Habitat green building is good for the planet, but with its increased efficiency and well-made materials, it cuts down on heating, cooling and maintenance costs as well.

"Why build a house a family can't afford to keep?" Winer said.

One misconception about Habitat is that the organization "gives" houses away. Homeowners buy their homes for a reasonable price, made possible because of donated labor and materials.

They pay mortgages and give volunteer hours back to Habitat, along with "sweat equity" at the construction site.

Paul Okeny is working 500 hours at ReStore to help repay his debt to Habitat. His new home, he said, his Sudanese accent still thick, "is all in Habitat's hands."

"Let me talk about those two guys," he said of Winer and Wood. After all the building was done, they helped the Okenys move from their apartment into the new house.

"They traveled four times, using their own car, their own gas," Okeny said. "Habitat people are good. They volunteer themselves all the time."

Anna Webb: 377-6431