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What Is the Purpose of Green Building Certifications?
The buildings where we live, work, and study directly and indirectly impact our health, financials, and the natural world. There are around 81 million buildings in the United States alone, all of which require resources and materials to be built, energy to operate, and waste streams to be managed. Today, most buildings—including the homes we live in—have huge impacts on the environment. Around 39 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions come from buildings. The EPA states that "548 million tons of C&D (construction and demolition) debris were generated in the United States in 2015—more than twice the amount of generated municipal solid waste." The roughly 126 million households across the country use an average of 300 gallons of water daily, for an average daily requirement of close to 38 billion gallons of water.
According to the National Institute of Building Sciences, the creation of green building standards, certifications, and rating systems strive to mitigate the impact of buildings on the natural environment through sustainable design.
Sustainable homes and buildings utilize ecological design, improved building techniques, high-quality construction materials, and new technologies to use the land, water, and resources more efficiently. They also help reduce energy demand, improve indoor and outdoor air quality, and increase the usage of recycled materials in home construction. Sustainable homes can reduce environmental footprint and impact and become a regenerative part of the local landscape. They can also generate more clean and renewable energy than they require.
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Is Third-Party Green Building Certification Verification Important?
Construction companies understand that sustainable buildings can demand a better price on the market. According to one recent study, "green designations increased selling prices by 1 percent, green features such as drought-tolerant plants and irrigation systems increased selling prices by 2 percent, and energy-efficient features such as Energy Star appliances, windows, and HVAC systems raised selling prices by 6 percent."
Unfortunately, when extra money is to be made, many companies will engage in "green-washing" practices, making extravagant claims regarding the sustainability of their home. While not every sustainable construction company will knowingly make untruthful claims, third-party verification systems and processes allow homeowners and potential home buyers to trust the credibility of a specific sustainability designation. Thus, building certification programs exist to demonstrate the trustworthiness and credibility of certain sustainable home features through independently verified and accurate data.
As many cities and regions actively implement policies to reduce their CO2 emissions and environmental impact, homeowners might find available programs offering rebates and incentives for achieving a certain level of home sustainability. Third-party verification systems attached to building certification programs allow governments and stakeholders to ensure these rebates and incentives are destined for homeowners whose houses are making significant environmental improvements.
The Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), established in 1990, was the world's first green building rating system. Today, dozens of certification programs for homes and buildings offer a unique take on maximizing sustainability. Below, we provide a summary of the leading building certification programs.
What Is RELi Building Standard?
The RELi Building Standard is unique. It focuses its certification on the need to build resilient homes and communities to the increasingly common weather extremes associated with global climate change, natural and human-made disasters, and resource depletion, an unfortunate element of our current society. This building standard combines sustainable and regenerative home guidelines with credits considering emergency preparedness, adaptation, and community vitality. Categories for this building certification program include Panoramic Approach, Hazard Preparedness, Hazard Adaptation, Community Vitality, Productivity / Health + Diversity, Energy / Water + Food, Materials + Artifacts, and Applied Creativity.
Which Certification Program Should You Choose?
Are you wondering which certification program (if any) is right for you? They are all great and will deliver a better product than merely building to code. Note that we did not include the Passive House or Energy Star programs, as those are more focused on energy and less holistic—but if energy independence is your primary goal, then start there. Since LEED is the most prevalent for a comprehensive rating system, finding a LEED Accredited Professional to help you through the will most likely be the most natural path. But if you believe that buildings should be regenerative and restorative (and why shouldn’t they be?), go for the Living Building Challenge. It’s all about matching your values to your home.
Rise Writer
Expert. Practical. Sustainable.
Article by
Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.
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