Beyond ENERGY STAR?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Eggleton on October 3, 2011 at 11:28am

Some of what you want may be here (passive house, US).  There's a conference in D.C. at the end of this month.

Permalink Reply by Paul Scheckel on October 3, 2011 at 1:25pm

I worked on the development of the NJ Climate Choice Home,slated to be a pilot of EPA's climate choice home (which was shelved and will be re-born soon under the name "Concept Home"). Not quite Passive House, but getting there.

Permalink Reply by David Bourbon on October 3, 2011 at 1:50pm

Dallas adopted a green building program that states, "New construction will also have to be certifiable by USGBC LEED™, Green Built Texas™, or an equivalent green building standard." Equivalent standards have to be submitted for approval.

http://www.dallascityhall.com/building_inspection/greenBuilding.html 

Permalink Reply by Sean Lintow Sr on October 3, 2011 at 5:24pm

All good choices below and add a few more- there is Earth Craft, MN Green Star, etc... I would personally look into all of them (particularry Passive Haus) & see if one fits your area or maybe see about adopting parts from each of them. You may also look at UECC 2012 & possibly the new IGBC / Green Building Code (2012?)

Permalink Reply by John Nicholas on October 3, 2011 at 7:09pm

Add EPA Indoor Air Plus.   You have a choice for one of 2 checklists on moisture with ES 3.0.  Offer both.  What products do you builders by that are local?  Pick a % and demo it.  Green because you don't truck it in from 2000 miles away.

 

Try an advanced framing approach.  Or take the 2012 code and see what you can do to get ahead of the game.

 

Not actual Green Bldg Certified Programs, more along with rolling your own.

Permalink Reply by Kent Mitchell on October 5, 2011 at 9:55pm

All good comments... the 2012  & IGBC codes would be worth advancing on.  Liked John Nicholas comment of rolling your own... Not certifiable but certainly marketable and that is where it counts!

Permalink Reply by Tom on October 6, 2011 at 8:41am

There's Minergie, if you feel like learning German or French and doing penance for the suffering inflicted on your European brethren who are having to decode and implement LEED abroad. ;)

Minergie is a great standard though. And rumor has it they're looking to help American projects so as to get a foothold here.

 

Tangentially related, and what I hoped this thread was going to be about when I saw the title - - This past weekend at Home Depot I noticed CEE tiers listed on appliance informational display cards. Totally awesome.

(though not useful for whole-home Energy Star, of course)

Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Stuart on October 7, 2011 at 11:21am

There's also GreenPoint Rated in California:

http://www.builditgreen.org/greenpoint-rated/

Folks at Build It Green are more than happy to talk with folks in other states who might want to adopt a version of the program.