Kent and Kathy Lawrence’s country house has a carbon footprint much smaller than that of most custom homes; it was built using recycled materials and is partially powered by solar panels and a windmill. But it is far from the “hippie domes” of the 1970s. It’s an elegant Arts-and-Crafts-inspired dwelling, with stone fireplaces and radiant floor heating, that harmonizes with the ancient oaks and undulating landscape.

The house, completed in 2005, embodies a powerful trend in custom building: “Conspicuous conservationists” are willing to pay a premium for new homes that produce energy and save resources, while still offering style and comfort.

The design of the Lawrence residence was led by a conservation ethic and a desire to work with the land rather than against it. The couple didn’t want to unduly disturb the gently sloping hills, tiny creek, and prairie on their property in the Kickapoo Mud Creek Nature Conservancy, about 100 miles northwest of Chicago, where Kent works as a securities lawyer. But they ended up spending $300 per square foot for the 2,200 square-foot house, compared with about $87 per square foot for new construction in the Midwest. They also paid the equivalent of the cost of a low-end luxury sedan—more than $37,100—for a wind turbine to generate electricity, even though they didn’t receive any tax subsidies to offset its cost.

Although there’s no exact tally of how many U.S. homes are ecodynamic, green homebuilding surged more than 50 percent from the mid-1990s to the end of 2006, reports the National Association of Home Builders, a Washington-based trade organization.

Not only do upscale homeowners want more environmentally focused amenities, they want their houses certified. More than 97,000 homes have been deemed green by various homebuilding groups, the Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The majority of these structures have been built since the mid-’90s, the N.A.H.B. claims, mostly supported by small, local construction companies that adopted green building as a specialty. Having a residence that carries some degree of environmental certification is fast becoming a badge of honor among the well-heeled who have made An Inconvenient Truth their secular bible. Celebrities such as Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom have even issued press releases on the state-of-the-art green homes they are building.

The benefits of green design are more than appreciated by the Lawrences, who have gone beyond their dwelling place and are gradually restoring the oak savanna and upland prairie landscape to its original state, from degraded pastureland. They’ve been removing invasive species, such as leafy spurge and garlic mustard, and planting native flowers, including phlox and Jacob’s ladder. They see themselves not just as landowners but as land stewards.

“We wanted to live in nature,’’ says Kathy. “If we hadn’t bought the land, a developer would have. This is the little piece we can help with.”