By Dan McLeister
The U.S. Green Building Council is about to launch a pilot program for the "green" certification of new homes. Called LEED-H® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes), the program is scheduled to be tested from February through September 2005. A final public release is planned for the winter of 2005-2006, with the full LEED-H program to be rolled out in the first quarter of 2006.
Local green home building programs provide some degree of third-party verification for builders interested in sustainable construction for today's environmentally conscious home buyers. In fact, a host of such programs have been launched by cities, states and regional groups across the country (see sidebar). However, the local programs are neither endorsed by nor affiliated with the USGBC. (The USGBC has successfully established other rating programs for new commercial construction and existing commercial buildings. Those voluntary programs provide a feature-oriented rating system in which credits are earned for satisfying specified green building criteria.)
Not surprisingly, the lack of a single national definition of green building has resulted in confusion among some builders and consumers. USGBC hopes to remedy these issues with the LEED-H program. There is a tremendous advantage to having a national consensus, says James Hackler, LEED-H program manager. Up until this point nobody has been taking a holistic approach that includes performance testing and certification, he says.
Two national programs
Meanwhile, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is in the process of establishing a national green building program of its own. "We applaud the NAHB for its effort at a national program to get the green building message to the great mass of home builders," says Rick Fedrizzi, president of the USGBC. "The NAHB program, with its plan to do baseline education, is complementary to the LEED program. They are not at all conflicting. The two programs provide a win-win situation."
Fedrizzi says his organization is targeting the leading green production builders and specialty custom builders who sell to high-end, environmentally aware buyers. The NAHB effort is geared to reaching many more home builders.
The two programs are quite different, says Steve Winter, co-chairman of the LEED for Homes program and principle of Steven Winter Associates, Norwalk, Conn. The NAHB program offers a set of guidelines and allows the local organization to peg the threshold of the rating system at any point they choose. The LEED-H program will provide guidelines as well as a training program. The structure will be similar to the Energy Star program operated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
LEED-H is expected to adopt a certified silver, gold and platinum rating structure in order to recognize the varying levels of performance achieved in each of five categories: energy, water, construction, land and health.
Both the NAHB and USGBC national programs have the same goal—providing third-party credibility for new home builders selling sustainability and green-built homes.
| 
