Perspective: Residential Green Growing Pains

Perspective: Residential Green Growing Pains

EBN readers are no doubt aware, the growth in residential resource-efficiency programs and initiatives has been tremendous—local green builder programs, HUD’s PATH initiative, DOE’s Building America program, EPA’s Energy Star Homes program, the American Lung Associa-tion’s Health House, and Fannie Mae’s green mortgage program.

While not all of these programs are considered

green building programs per se, they share many of the same objectives and criteria. All these efforts—and others—may be moving us closer to a critical mass for green building—or, strangely enough, may be confounding this goal.

Builders, homebuyers, and even private and public funding organizations often have to choose one program from among many to follow or support. The relationship among the programs and initiatives is not clear, and the standards vary widely. Each may ultimately become a victim of the other’s success.

Why not develop an “umbrella” green building program? That approach seems to be working in the commercial sector with the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program (see

EBN Vol. 9, No. 4). Years were spent developing the scope, objectives, and standards of LEED to make it comprehensive, equitable, and achievable. Can and should the same type of system be developed for the residential building industry?

We believe that the answer is—cautiously—yes. While we understand that developers and supporters of existing programs would like to see their program rise to the top, this survival-of-the-fittest approach may actually be diluting the strength of the U.S. green building movement. There could be some drawbacks, to be sure: a strong national program could weaken or even eliminate some existing programs, particularly those with a narrow focus. But the benefits of broader national recognition and greater environmental achievement could outweigh that drawback. And if there is broad participation in development of a new national residential green building program, existing stakeholders could see their goals and needs better fulfilled.

An “umbrella” green building program would have to accomplish two potentially conflicting objectives: one, develop standards that are comprehensive and credible; and two, honor and integrate existing green building programs as much as possible. Ideally, the new umbrella program would both support, and be supported by, existing efforts. This will be no small challenge. Along these lines,

EBN will be contributing to the USGBC efforts to develop a Residential LEED program.

We cannot know now what will come out of this formidable task. Once the dust settles, we—and everyone else—can decide whether and how to support the resulting program. Given the inherent difficulties, Residential LEED certainly won’t satisfy everyone in every way. The alternative, however, may be far worse: without a recognized national program, critical interest and support from consumers, trade associations, and government agencies will be split among separate, largely overlapping efforts.

– Peter Yost