HOST: NAHB's new green-building guidelines are coming out. You're with NAHB's Research Center -- (REP: That's right.) What role did you guys play in the new guidelines?
REP: We're an accredited ANSE standards-developer organization. (HOST: Okay.) So, it was our job to take the existing guidelines they have and transform them to an ANSE standards.
HOST: Okay. Andrew, most people are familiar in green-building guidelines with NAHB and LEED. (REP: Yeah.) What is your take on the difference between the two?
REP: If you think of the market as a triangle, what we do is focused on is the top-twenty-percent of the triangle -- (HOST: I agree.) and what they really want to do is get the leading edge--the early adopters, where -- where price really isn't as important as other considerations. If you're comparing NAHB's top level to the LEED program, they're very comparable. So the emerald level to platinum, but they're very comparable standards. Where they're different, I think, is at the base of the triangle. What NAHB said was we also want to take um the mainstream building and move it up a significant notch. We're not only pulling from the top, but we're trying to push the base of the triangle.
HOST: Well, I'm a builder, and when I was going through the guidelines, I looked at NAHB's, and it was a little bit easier for me to kind of move into, and I think if you get all the builders to sort of get moving into it, you know, we may be at the top of the NAHB's green-building triangle, maybe get into a lead, very innovative stuff in the future. But what kind of interest are you seeing form today's builder?
REP: Seeing a lot of interest in green. There's a lot of regulatory pressure, but there's also a lot of emerging consumer demand. Certainly the concern about energy crisis and energy independence with energy being an important factor in green--not the exclusive factor (HOST: Right.), but an important one, they're very interested. And I think we babyboomers are concerned about the next generation, and we want to have less of an impact on the planet for the future. And so we're seeing a lot of interest from builders and a lot of interest from consumers.
HOST: Okay. Just in your opinion, what is the most-important aspect of green building?
REP: I think it's holistic. There are a lot of definitions of green. There are a lot of different green programs. But green is -- is thinking about the way we build homes holistically. So, it's energy-efficient. It's renewability. It's conservation. It's looking at purchasing supplies locally. It's looking at indoor air quality. And a big element of NAHB's program which we've really advanced is the land-use and land-development side. There's really a lot of elements in it which go to sustainability on the land-use side, which I think are really important.
HOST: Right. We're starting to do the green building further and further upfront. Start at development. Then, worry about the house and design the house to be green. Now how much interest are you getting from some of the really high-performance green -- green homes?
REP: Oh, I think we're going to get a lot of interest. Those are the early adopters. (HOST: Uh-huh.) those tend to be the guys that say, we're looking for the next innovation. That's how we're going to set ourself up in the marketplace. So, I think we're going to do very well with those guys. The high-performance guys are really interested, and the thing that's exciting to me, too, is that the mainstream builders are becoming very interested in this. And that's, candidly, how we're going to change the world is if most buildings that get out there, we're going to move them up, we're gonna make a big difference.
HOST: And we need those high-performance guys to start making it more commonplace for us, and before you know it, a general contractor like me will be using high-performance technology also.
REP: And one of the important elements of that is once on the high-performance end we learn how to do it and figure it out, costs begin to come down. (HOST: Yeah.) We begin to internalize those costs. And then the guys that aren't quite at the high-performance level say it is within reach. We figured out the systems. WE figured it out. And, of course, as the market grows, the cost will come down, and that's good for all of us.
HOST: Yes, it is. Thank you very much.
REP: Thank you.
HOST: Great information.
REP: I appreciate it very much.
[NONINTERVIEW DIALOGUE AND FOOTAGE]
HOST: I can't wait to see NAHB's green-building guidelines, but I also understand that there's a new process for builders to become a green builder that it can be certified by NAHB. Can you kind of give us a little detail on that?
REP: Yeah. Under the NAHB Green-Building program, um the NAHB Research Center is going to be the certifying agency for all the homes that are out there. And one of the things that sets this program apart, I believe, is that this is going to be the only green-building program where the certifications of the homes is going to be done by an accredited third-party agency. (HOST: Okay.) And so that's -- that's important because consumers are going to know that if they see our mark on that home, an independent third-party has concluded from field analysis that the requirements have been met. That'll create a lot of consumer confidence.
HOST: Great. [END]
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