15
E
very day more homes and
multifamily
buildings
earn
green certification. At Home
Innovation Research Labs, the industry’s
embrace of our NGBS Green Certification
Program is clear through our real-time
tally online of NGBS Green Certified
homes and projects in the certification
certification regularly hear from skeptics who declare, “I build
high-performance buildings. Green certification is expensive.
It is not worth the time, effort, or cost.” This article offers an
alternative perspective.
PRODUCT CERTIFICATIONS ABOUND
It’s hard to conceive of everyday life without products bearing a
certification mark. Certification provides consumers confidence
that the products they purchase will perform as expected. For
the construction industry, builders rely on product certifications
to verify that testing has been done to prove a building product,
component, method or material performs at a level compliant
with applicable codes, standards and regulations. But is it
enough for a product manufacturer to test their own products
and assert that they meet the relevant specifications? Probably
not for consumer confidence, and for many building products,
it is not enough for code compliance. Consumers, code officials,
and building professionals want unbiased, validated evidence
from an independent, third-party certification agent.
Independent, third-party certification adds cost to any product
— but is it not worth the cost? If you’re not sure, ask yourself
these questions. Would you want your OSB’s structural
performance untested? What about the R-value of your
insulation? Insulation “not far off from R-19” might be ok, or
maybe not if you actually want optimal thermal performance.
Most builders rightfully expect a little more precision and
confidence from their building products.
BUT WHAT ABOUT HOME/BUILDING CERTIFICATION?
Are independent, third-party verifications and certifications
necessary, or are they an unjustifiable additional cost? I believe
building certification, when reasonably priced, is as essential as
certification of any of the separate building products specified
in a project. Building products are typically manufactured in a
factory-controlled environment with stringent quality control
procedures in place. On-site construction is a far messier process
for lots of valid reasons. Builders have significantly less ability to
control many factors on a jobsite than a manufacturer can control
in a factory. Weather alone can wreak havoc on construction
managers – a factor that product manufacturers seldom have to
worry about.
NGBS Green Certification provides indispensable confidence,
whether on behalf of the architect, builder, equity partner,
homebuyer or renter, that a building complies with the rigorous
National Green Building Standard (NGBS). To be clear, I
advocate for NGBS Green Certification not because builders and
developers are incapable of compliance without an independent,
third-party inspector looking over their shoulder. Instead, I
recognize that certification addresses three important factors,
detailed below.
• First, contemporary high-performance buildings are
complex, often constructed with practices, products,
technologies and systems less familiar than their
conventional alternatives. NGBS Green Certification helps
provide quality assurance for these newer innovations.
• Second, marketing a building as ‘green’ understandably
raises consumer expectations about a building’s expected
performance. Indeed, the Federal Trade Commission
admonishes that marketers are less likely to be deceptive
or misleading when their green statements are backed up
with an independent, third-party certification.
By Michelle Desiderio, Vice President of Innovation Services, Home Innovation Research Labs
Feature
Is
Green Certification
Worth the Cost?
