There are many ins and outs to building a green home, and numerous ways to approach it, from simple measures to complex ones. Using a third-party evaluation of a product manufacturer’s green claims can help builders focus on building and selling their homes, rather than on doing in-depth research on what constitutes green.
Builders face a nearly endless flood of green product claims while numerous home rating programs compete for their attention. It can be difficult to know where to start with green building, or how best to expand if you’re already committed to environmentally responsible construction.
Two product certificate/report tools introduced in 2009 provide builders an easy way to see products’ green features, and how those products can earn points under major green building programs like the National Green Building Standard™ and LEED® for Homes.
The certificates/reports are:
- National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Research Center’s Green Approved products certificates, and
- International Code Council Evaluation Service’s (ICC-ES®) Sustainable Attributes Verification and Evaluation™ Program (SAVE™) Verification of Attributes Reports™.
These tools provide independent verification of manufacturers’ green claims, and link the listed products to specific point categories to help streamline the process of earning a green home rating.
- Jayme Mattson
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