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Homebuilders Association?s New Green Building Program: Blue Skies Ahead?

By Womble Carlyle Construction Law Team

In a February 20, 2008, article, Engineering News-Record reports that the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is working with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to introduce a new voluntary and flexible green building program that will apply to both new home construction and remodeling projects. According to a home builder in Austin, Texas, "houses will be scored on a point system using a ?Turbo Tax? approach after being inspected by third-party verifiers trained by the NAHB Research Center."

NAHB plans to publish the new ANSI green-building standard in April or May 2008. Click here to see the latest draft.

The year-long development process has included government officials, builders and associations. The professional certification program will be open to architects, planners, lenders, suppliers and realtors.

The development of the new green standard was unveiled at the latest International Builders Show, amidst presentations pointing to a precipitous decline in housing starts over the past two years. Seeing a break in the dark clouds, homebuilders report that green-building practices sell homes. In addition to assisting new home sales, NAHB?s new green building standard will also help the industry meet a challenge by the U.S. Department of Energy for builders to produce at least 220,000 green homes by 2012. (This entry published by Ken Michael, a member of Womble Carlyle's construction law practice group).

Sources: ENR, NAHBRC

Full post as published by Womble Carlyle Constrution Industry Blog on February 28, 2008 (boomark / email).