Understanding Certifications and Guidelines for
Green
Housing and Sustainable Communities
Third-party certification programs
verify, rate, and promote the
use of sustainable practices in
the design and construction of homes
and housing, as well as commercial
buildings, mixed-use developments, and
entire neighborhoods and communities.
Certification ratings make it possible to
do an apples-to-apples comparison of
the level of accomplishment (or “greenness”)
among projects that use a particular
certification system.
Although green certification programs
were developed as voluntary
standards, many state and local governments
have started to mandate that certain
types of building projects meet one
of the standards. Some government
programs require that projects be officially
certified by a third-party certifier,
whereas others require only that a project
use a certification standard as a
design guideline; in such cases, the project
team is typically expected to perform
a self-assessment or to provide
documentation for local program staff
to review.
Many local governments’ green
building programs have instituted
green certification requirements only
for municipal and/or commercial building
projects, although some programs
have also mandated certification
requirements for single-family and
multifamily residential projects.
Within
California, more than 55 local governments
have established some type of
green building requirement, and several
require that housing projects use a
green rating system.
Many local governments offer incentives
for developing green projects, such
as expedited plan review and permitting,
expedited inspections, and grants
or rebates. San Francisco offers priority
permit review for all new and renovated
buildings that can demonstrate that
they will achieve LEED Gold or
Platinum-level certification.
San Mateo County offers expedited
permitting for projects that will achieve
a LEED for Homes certification or will
earn at least 75 points on the
GreenPoint Rated checklist. And in Los
Altos Hills, residential projects that will
achieve the LEED Silver rating (or
higher) qualify for expedited building
plan review and residential projects
that will achieve LEED Gold certification
qualify for guaranteed building
inspections within two working days of
a request for inspection.
Some utility companies, such as
Pasadena Water and Power, also
encourage green building under one of
the certification programs and offer
rebates on energy bills or other incentives
for qualifying projects.
This article provides an overview of
green certification programs and guidelines
for housing developments and for neighborhood- or community-scale
developments.
Green Building Certifications
The LEED Rating System
LEED (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design) is an internationally
recognized green building certification
system that awards points for
satisfying criteria related to designing
and constructing buildings and developments
for improved environmental
performance and human health.
LEED
was developed by the U.S. Green
Building Council (USGBC), a nonprofit
membership organization. The independent
Green Building Certification
Institute reviews documentation from
each LEED project to verify compliance,
determine the rating level, and
grant certification. The rating that a
project earns—Certified, Silver, Gold,
or Platinum—is determined by how
many points a project achieves.
LEED has become the de facto
national standard for green buildings
and the standard that is most often referenced
or required by state and local
green building programs, as well as federal
agencies and educational institutions.
As of December 2009, 202 local
governments in 45 states, 34 state governments,
and 14 federal agencies or
departments had incorporated LEED
into some type of policy initiative
affecting construction.
New single-family homes and multifamily
housing with three stories or
fewer (and some four-story projects)
can use the LEED for Homes rating
system. Developments with four or
more stories (including high-rise housing)
can use the LEED for New
Construction rating system (for newly
built and major renovation projects), or
the LEED for Existing Buildings:
Operations & Maintenance rating system,
whichever is applicable.
For midrise projects with four, five, or
six stories, there is now a LEED for
Homes Mid-Rise Pilot rating system.
Approximately one-third of LEED
for Homes (LEED H) projects have
been affordable housing projects.
The
rating system includes measures applicable
to such projects, including credits
related to compact development,
homes that are smaller than the national
average, and sites close to infrastructure
and community resources.
The cost of obtaining LEED certification
has been an obstacle to its widespread
use for affordable housing.
USGBC has attempted to address this
issue by obtaining financial assistance
from the Home Depot Foundation to
help cover LEED registration, verification,
and certification fees for low-income
housing projects being developed
by nonprofit affordable housing
developers.
Click here for more information about LEED.
NAHB Green Building Standard
Housing developers observed that
LEED was originally formulated for
large commercial buildings. In
response, the National Association of
Home Builders (NAHB) and the
International Code Council (ICC) partnered
to establish a nationally recognizable
standard definition of “green
building” for homes.
A consensus committee was formed
to develop this standard in compliance
with the requirements of the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI).
The resulting ANSI-approved ICC-700-2008 National Green Building Standard
defines green building for single and
multifamily homes, residential remodeling
projects, and site development projects,
while allowing for the flexibility
required for regionally appropriate best
green practices.
To comply with the National Green
Building Standard, a builder, remodeler,
or developer must incorporate a
minimum number of features in the following
areas: energy, water, and
resource efficiency, lot and site development,
indoor environmental quality,
and home owner education. The more
points accrued, the higher the score.
The NAHB and the National Multi-Housing Council have been working to
get the standard adopted as part of local
building codes. Part of the motivation is
to promote definitions and standards
that are uniform from city to city.
Click here for more information about NAHB certification.
Other Green Certifications
• GreenPoint Rated: Build It Green,
a nonprofit organization, developed the
GreenPoint Rated (GPR) certification
system for residential projects in
California. Three different GPR systems
are available: New Home (for single-
family projects), Multifamily New
Home, and Existing Home. As with
LEED, building owners/developers
must hire an approved rater to perform
on-site inspections and testing for certification.
The primary differences
between LEED and GPR are:
LEED is a national program for all
building types, whereas GPR is intended
to serve residential projects in
California.
LEED’s rigorous standards are
targeted to the top 25 percent greenest
builders/developers/owners—the leaders
in the field—whereas GPR is
intended to provide a more “accessible
point of entry.”
The GPR credit requirements are
generally more flexible (e.g., there are
fewer mandatory “prerequisite” measures
than there are in LEED), and the
GPR certification process is usually less
expensive. For more information on
GPR, including a fee chart, visit
www.builditgreen.org/greenpointrated.
• Energy Star Homes: The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) developed the Energy Star
Homes certification program for new
homes. Energy Star Homes are typically
15–30 percent more energy efficient
than standard homes. For more information
on Energy Star Homes, visit
www.energystar.gov/homes.
The EPA
also developed an Indoor airPLUS program
aimed at improving the indoor air
quality of new homes and a WaterSense
Homes program for improving the
water efficiency of new homes. These
standards can be used in conjunction
with the Energy Star standard.
• The EarthCraft House certification
program was created by the
Greater Atlanta Homebuilders
Association and Southface, and has
been used by projects, including
affordable multifamily housing projects,
in several states.
• The rigorous Passive House certification
for carbon-neutral homes was
recently imported from Europe to the
United States.
• The international Living Building
Challenge program developed deep green
standards (going beyond LEED
requirements) that can be applied to
any type of building, site, or community
design project.
• Several local and regional governments
(e.g., Seattle, Washington; Boulder,
Colorado; Austin,Texas) created their own
residential green building certification
programs before any national standard
was available, and many local certification
programs are still active.
Green Housing
Guidelines
The certification systems listed
above can be used as design guidelines
even if official certification is not a
goal for the project. Other guidelines
and checklists, which don’t have a
third-party certification mechanism,
can also be useful. Several sets of green
guidelines are specific to affordable
housing projects:
Enterprise Green Communities
Criteria from Enterprise Community
Partners’ Green Communities program
AIA Affordable Green Guidelines
(American Institute of Architects)
Blueprint for Greening Affordable
Housing by Global Green USA (2nd
edition, 2007)
Green Rehabilitation of
Multifamily Rental Properties: A
Resource Guide, by Bay Area LISC
(Local Initiatives Support
Corporation)
REGREEN residential remodeling
guidelines, developed by ASID and
USGBC
Green Building Guidelines:
Meeting the Demand for Low-Energy,
Resource Efficient Homes,
Sustainable Buildings Industry
Council, 2007
Sustainable Neighborhoods and Communities
Several certification programs rate
the environmental (and social) sustainability
of multiple-building, mixed-use,
and neighborhood or community-wide
developments:
• LEED for Neighborhood
Development (LEED-ND): LEED-ND
is the newest LEED rating system.
It was developed through a collaboration
between the U.S. Green Building
Council, the Congress for the New
Urbanism, and the Natural Resources
Defense Council. LEED-ND integrates
the principles of smart growth,
urbanism, and green building into
neighborhood design. It aims to benefit
communities by reducing urban
sprawl, decreasing automobile
dependence, and promoting walkability
and the proximity of housing to jobs
and services. LEED-ND can be
applied to developments of all sizes,
from a couple of acres to entire neighborhoods
or communities. It can be
applied to new developments or the
redevelopment of existing neighborhoods.
Most LEED-ND projects are
mixed-use developments.
LEED-ND credits are organized
into the following categories: Smart
Location and Linkage; Neighborhood
Pattern and Design; Green
Infrastructure and Buildings;
Innovation and Design Process; and
Regional issues. LEED-ND projects
are required to have at least one certified
green building within the development.
LEED-ND has credits that
reward projects that include affordable
housing—particularly the Mixed-
Income Diverse Communities credit
(Neighborhood Pattern and Design
credit #4), for which projects can
achieve up to 7 points. For additional
information on LEED-ND, or to
download the rating system, visit
www.usgbc.org/leed/nd.
• One Planet Communities: This
international program is part of the
One Planet Living program developed
by BioRegional. One Planet
Communities have the ambitious goal
of reducing their ecological footprint
by at least 80 percent, making them
some of the greenest neighborhoods in
the world. The One Planet Living program
is based on 10 principles within
the following categories: zero carbon,
zero waste, sustainable transport, local
and sustainable materials, local and
sustainable food, sustainable water,
natural habitats and wildlife, culture
and heritage, equity and fair trade, and
health and happiness. For more information
on One Planet Communities,
visit www.oneplanetcommunities.org.
• Living Building Challenge: This
program can be applied to individual
buildings as well as to neighborhood-scale
projects. More information at
www.ilbi.org.
Another resource relevant to sustainable
community planning is
SmartCode. It is an open-source model
development code—essentially an
urban design and zoning ordinance—
that can be used for any scale of planning.
It is based on new urbanist, smart
growth principles and is intended for
use by municipalities and design firms.
It is not a certification program. •