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• Finally, and perhaps most importantly, as a builder, you
can’t always have eyes in the back of your head. Insulation
will get installed incorrectly. The wrong windows will get
delivered to your construction site. A delivery truck driver
will be unaware of a silt fence’s purpose and roll-over
as opposed to going around the stormwater protection
measures to access the site.
By participating in a third-party certification program, your
accredited NGBS Green Verifier serves as on-site quality control
for any project he or she is inspecting. Our verifiers visually
inspect every single home and apartment to ensure the NGBS
Green practices that should be met, are met. Home Innovation
not only reviews every verification report before conferring
certification on a building, but also provides a depth and
breadth of green residential construction expertise to back up
our verification field force.
NOT ALL PROGRAMS ARE EQUAL
While I advocate for building certification, it is important
to understand that among the different green programs they
vary considerably in rigor and purpose. First, consider Home
Innovation Research Labs as the certification agency. As an
accredited third-party test lab and certification entity with
50 years of experience, our objective is to maintain the rigor
for which the Home Innovation certification mark is known.
Accredited third parties are, by definition, held to a higher
verifiable standard than their non-accredited counterparts.
Our methods, materials, protocols, records and administrative
processes are regularly checked for compliance by outside
entities — if we don’t meet their scrutiny, we cannot continue
to hold our accreditation and perform third-party services. For
this reason, builders, product manufacturers, code officials
and consumers look to us to confirm compliance with code
requirements and claims about product performance, from
plumbing to insulation, and structural building components to
green homes.
Next, consider the rating system that is the centerpiece of our
Home Innovation NGBS Green Certification Program – the
National Green Building Standard (NGBS). We certify green
projects to this first ANSI-accredited residential standard for
green construction, which was created under the strictures of
ANSI’s consensus process and is required to go through regular
public review and updating. In fact, currently, the NGBS is going
through its third formal review/comment period since its debut
2008 iteration.
Finally, consider the rigor within the NGBS. It is the only green
rating system in the market today that requires higher baseline
levels of achievement/performance in each of its six categories in
order for a project to attain the next higher level of certification.
In other words, a project cannot be just highly energy efficient
and achieve our highest, Emerald, level certification. An
Emerald-level NGBS Green project must achieve Emerald-level
point thresholds in every category for us to bestow the Emerald
certification to it. If just one category misses the mark, the whole
project is likewise limited. We don’t know of another green
certification program with such rigorous requirements and I
encourage all builders and developers to be educated consumers
regarding the certification program they select.
Last, but certainly not least when considering a certification
program, is cost. Building certification only provides added value
until it costs so much that it doesn’t. NGBS Green Certification
is affordable for all residential projects. Our certification fee
is $200 per home or $200 per multifamily building plus $20
per unit. Verification fees are determined by the specific NGBS
Green Verifier based on their local markets, but are reasonable
as a percentage of construction costs. Further, NGBS Green
Certification is an allowable attribute that can be taken into
consideration for valuation of the property, and therefore may
more than pay for itself when the property is appraised.
When all these facts are taken into consideration, I believe the
value of NGBS Green Certification by Home Innovation Research
Labs certainly merits the cost. Still skeptical? Feel free to check
out our website
or contact
us online
to
discuss your particular business or residential project.
Feature
”
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.
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