The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) launched its new residential green-building certification program called the National Green Building Standard this month after being formally approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
The revised certification the NAHB rolled out this month is designed to appeal to a broad group of builders and homebuyers because of its flexibility. This program gives builders and alternative to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) residential program.
The groundwork for this program began in 2007 when the NAHB and the International Code Council (ICC) partnered to form to establish a much-needed and nationally-recognizable standard definition of what is meant by “Green Building.”
A consensus committee was formed to develop this standard in compliance with the requirements of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The resulting ANSI approved ICC-700-2008 National Green Building Standard defines green building for single and multifamily homes, residential remodeling projects and site development projects while still allowing for the flexibility required for regionally-appropriate best green practices.
Similar to the NAHB Model Green Homebuilding Guidelines, a builder, remodeler or developer must incorporate a minimum number of features in the following areas: energy, water, and resource efficiency, lot and site development, indoor environmental quality, and home owner education. The more points accrued, the higher the score.
The Standard, however, includes more mandatory items and suggests that higher thresholds be met in several categories.
According to most experts, having NAHB and LEED on the market simply gives people more green choices when they’re designing and building their new home.
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Christine Cooney
Christine has over a decade of experience as a house plan and floor plan expert. Outside of providing her expertise to customers to help them find and build their dream homes, her passion and knowledge of the home building industry allows Christine to guide families and builders through all of the important steps from finding plans to building custom homes that meet the expectations of today’s new home owner. Christine’s years of knowledge of the diverse trends and needs of the modern homeowner has made her into an authoritative and trusted voice in the online house plan community.