James Hackler is the LEED for Homes Program Manager, U.S. Green Building Council;
and Jennifer Henry is the LEED for Neighborhood Design, U.S. Green Building Council

After an exhaustive review of existing green building programs and years of hard work by a committee of industry experts, the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) newest green building rating system is here.

A draft of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Homes is now being tested in some of the top housing markets on a mix of residential projects that include everything from affordable to multifamily.

The target for LEED for Homes is the top 25% of home builders (the innovators and the market leaders) who build homes incorporating best-practice environmental features. Like the USGBC’s other rating systems, LEED for Homes will have certified, silver, gold and platinum levels, in recognition of the level of environmental performance achieved in five basic categories:    

1) use of energy resources;
2) use of water resources;  
3) use of materials;  
4) use of land resources; and
5) enhanced indoor environmental quality to safeguard the health of the home’s occupants.

While many of the measures under “use of land resources” will be familiar to those getting commercial projects certified under the LEED for New Construction rating system, LEED for Homes is adding some new practices and expanding on some old ones. The LEED for Homes committee created a new category called Location and Linkages that encourages the development of infill sites and sites that are already served by existing infrastructure, and discourages constructing homes in environmentally sensitive areas. It also includes points for higher residential density in order to discourage sprawl and create land use patterns that support transportation alternatives such as walking, biking, and transit.

There was concern that these “Location and Linkages” measures should be left to the LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) rating system that’s being created, but the LEED for Homes committee saw a need to integrate some of these sustainable development techniques into the LEED for Homes rating system to show builders and developers how interrelated their roles are to a truly sustainable community.

Ultimately the market will decide if this approach makes sense, and that’s why a pilot will run through 2006. The primary objective of piloting  LEED for Homes is testing the rating system to ensure it’s a practical and effective tool to recognize green building practices used in the new home market. The pilot is also testing the delivery system for LEED for Homes. In an effort to recognize the expertise that exists in the residential marketplace, the USGBC created LEED for Homes Program Providers. The providers are local or regional organizations that are providing support services to builders of LEED Homes. Based on a similar model developed by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) for home energy ratings, the LEED for Homes Program Providers are responsible for verifying that homes built under the rating system meet the requirements. They’ll also be training home raters and builders in both green home building practices and the LEED for Homes program requirements.

Developers and builders interested in taking part in the pilot can go to www.usgbc.org/ LEED for more information and to get an application. SLDT