Posted: August 2009

When it comes to building green, homeowners have access to a wide selection of remodeling professionals. It is easy to understand that a green builder is someone who builds and renovates to an accepted green standard, but until recently, there hasn't been just one standard that is agreed upon. The two main (and competing) green standards are the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED-H program (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – for homes) and the National Association of Home Builders’ NGBS (National Green Building Standard).

However, there is also the federal government's ENERGY STAR® program that has certified over 700,000 homes in the U.S. as being green. In addition, there is the Environments for Living Standard promoted by General Electric, a large provider of ENERGY STAR® appliances, as well as the Healthy House Standard supported by the American Lung Association. There are even competing local green standards – for example, in Seattle's King County, there are more than 60 local organizations that have established their own guidelines on how to build green. 

Fortunately in all this green competition, some sanity is starting to emerge. In addition to the established LEED-H program, the NAHB in conjunction with the International Code Council (ICC) has recently been able to establish a national residential green building standard that has been approved by the ANSI (the American National Standards Council), which means that we are essentially moving to two accepted green standards.

The NAHB ICC-700 Standard

Developed over a two-year period, the NAHB standard incorporated direct public input  as well as the opinions of manufacturers’ representatives, code officials and, of course, builders to determine what constitutes green building. This ANSI-approved standard (called with great originality ICC-700, or more colloquially the National Green Building Standard) includes single-family homes, multi-family housing projects, site development and home remodeling.

The standard sets out four compliance levels for certification – Bronze, Silver, Gold, and the highest achievable level, Emerald. The basic certification involves a list of mandatory requirements for a project to be considered green, many of which are essentially equivalent to minimum building code requirements. However, to achieve a higher certification, builders can gain incremental points for including features in six different areas – site development, water conservation, energy conservation, resource conservation, indoor air quality, and homeowner education. For a project to achieve Bronze certification, a home must use 15 percent less energy than a home that meets 2006 International Energy Conservation Code – Emerald certification requires a home to use 65 percent less energy.