Home builders association commits to green standard
John Wesley Miller is back from the annual meeting of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) with a mission to establish a national green building standard that will meet national standards and the promise of $2 million to make it a reality.
Miller, a senior lifetime director of the NAHB, is a long-time advocate for energy efficient and environmentally sustainable development. Although there already are guidelines for green building, Miller’s new charge is to get standards that will be approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Codes Committee.
He said the NAHB board’s vote “takes the next big step.”
“We’ve got the attention of the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency,” Miller said. “They want to see what we’re doing and what we’ll be able to accomplish.”
This also sets the stage for silver and gold certification levels and the possibility of a platinum level. For now, Miller said the association has given the challenge to the NAHB’s National Research Center for Housing to develop the standard encompassing energy consumption, water conservation, recycling and sustainable planning.
“The center’s staff will be consulting with the entire country, considering standards and regional differences while developing a point system they can use,” Miller said, adding that when it’s completed next year “It will establish the standard for doing something for the environment.”
As a recognized standards developer for ANSI, Tom Kenney, vice president of research, said they’re following an established process, which begins with the appointment of a 42-member consensus committee and seven working groups, combining committee members with experts, who’ll be developing the individual rules.
“Then they’ll begin looking at the current green building guidelines to plan what to do next,” he said.
Once the standard is completed, Kenney said, “They could be referenced by local builders or local municipalities, developing building regulations. That’s the thing about an ANSI standard, it’s available for anybody who wants to use it.”
As for Miller’s projects, including his Tucson “zero energy” homes at Armory Park del Sol, and planned developments elsewhere in downtown, he said, “We’ll still be doing quite a bit better than the basic ANSI standard, anyway. If there’s a platinum standard, we’ll want to shoot for it.”