More Certification and Designation Headaches

OK, so I’ve whined enough about the individual designations. Let’s talk about where the rubber meets the road – the buildings themselves. There are almost 100 local and regional green building programs out there with a wide range of requirements to get a building certified as green. Some have very stringent requirements including 3rd party testing of each house, others are a simple as the builder filling out a checklist and self certifying. I tend to prefer the former, where someone other than the builder is responsible for making sure the work is done right. In addition to that, some programs require that you test only a certain percentage of projects, assuming (usually incorrectly) that if you do some of your projects right, they will all be right. I like the idea of testing every project every time to make sure that they are as high performance as expected.

Beyond the local and regional programs, we now have several national options. Energy Star has been around the longest. Until recently, it only covered energy efficiency, although they are in the process of expanding to include indoor air quality and water savings, bringing them more in line with other green programs. LEED for Homes, a program of the US Green Building Council, is probably the highest profile program. It is available for new homes and total gut renovation projects, and has some very stringent, if obtuse requirements that will tend to limit it to builders who can deal with the administrative complexities. This year, NAHB released their new National Green Building Program (doesn’t that name just roll off your tongue?). Created specifically to give builders an alternative to LEED for Homes, it is a program that is both stringent and more manageable at the same time. At the lower end, it leaves the option for self certification, but at the higher end it does require the 3rd party verification that every program should have. This program will eventually have a remodeling component, but it currently only addresses new homes. Time will tell which program, if any, takes control of the market and becomes “the” standard out there.

Thus far, programs that certify residential remodeling are limited to a few local areas such as Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Scottsdale AZ, (my apologies to any that I have missed). USGBC developed an interesting set of guidelines for remodeling (full disclosure – I was one of the co-authors), but they are not planning on certifying renovation projects anytime soon. Home Performance with Energy Star is another option for renovators to learn about green remodeling and provide certification for their projects.

I haven’t made up my mind where I stand on these programs. I like the idea of local programs which address regional climate conditions and building conventions. I also like the idea of a national standard and brand for green building.

Conclusions? Who knows where this will end up and which program will end up on top? There are many options out there, all I can say is take advantage of them, learn about green building and remodeling and get your projects individually tested and certified. Having spent most of the last 8 years working on this, I can tell you it will be worth the trouble.

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com