Green Building Standards

By Kenton Shepard

Residential Green Building Standards

Because the term “green” is vague, it’s generally agreed that standards are needed with which those wishing to claim advanced energy-efficiency or sustainability for a home can comply. To meet this need, a number of organizations have created guidelines with checklists, some of which have become (or may become) standards.

Individual homes can be built using these guidelines, most of which assign a certain number of points to individual energy-efficient or sustainable features. Points are added together and the sum is the “rating” of the house.

Any National Residential Green Building Standard enacted will have the potential to strongly affect businesses and organizations connected with building. Businesses and organizations who are afraid new standards will create problems for them are promoting organizations whose proposed standards are minimal and voluntary. Businesses and organizations whose focus places more emphasis on the environment than business want stricter, mandatory regulations.

At this time (2007) enactment of mandatory federal Residential Green Building Standards in the near future does not seem likely.

Organizations Offering Programs

Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.

National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/International Code Commission (ICC)

U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED for homes

U.S. Department of Energy's Building America Program

New Buildings Institute Advanced Buildings Benchmark^TM

ASHRAE's Advanced Energy Design Guides

Local Programs

Except for a few local jurisdictions, residential programs are voluntary, and many are still evolving.

The following jurisdictions had mandatory green building requirements as of 10/07

• Austin, TX
• Battery Park City, New York, NY
• Boulder, CO
• Frisco, TX
• Novato, CA
• Santa Cruz, CA
• Sabastopol, CA
•  Seattle, WA
• Telluride, CO

One approach being used by a number of jurisdictions is to implement a voluntary program in order to evaluate its effectiveness and make adjustments as necessary before making the program mandatory.