The National Green Building Standard provides practices for the design and construction of green residential buildings of all types and land development. Single family homes, townhouses, duplexes, multifamily buildings, and renovations are all eligible to be green certified.
The Standard assigns point values to green practices. A residential building can attain one of four certification levels, Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Emerald, depending on how many green practices are successfully incorporated in the design and construction of the home or multifamily building. First, all of the Standard’s applicable mandatory provisions must be correctly implemented for a building to attain any certification level. In addition to the mandatory provisions, the Standard requires the home or multifamily building to include sufficient green practices in each of the six categories of green building practices to meet the category minimums for each green level.
As an ANSI-approved green building rating system, the Standard provides builders with a credible definition of green home. Since it provides a flexible, expansive point-based system for certification, it also offers builders a process to build affordable green homes that meets their goals, appropriate for the climate, and meets the needs of the market and home buyers.
Developers can also use the Standard to have subdivisions and land developments certified. The Standard offers four levels of certification for land developments: One Star through Four Stars.
Learn more about the different types of green certification and the fees for each: