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WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
To promote green building, the National Association of Home Builders developed the National Green Building Program, the cornerstone of which is the voluntary ICC 700-2008 National Green Building Standard, or NGBS.
The NGBS provides builders with a benchmark for designing, building, and ranking green projects and communities. It also allows manufacturers to communicate the green features of their products and score their products accordingly.
The NGBS covers single and multi-family homes, residential remodeling, and site development. Approved by the American National Standards Institute in January 2009, it’s the first ANSI standard on residential green building.
The NGBS establishes a green performance standard in several areas: lot design, preparation, and development; resource efficiency; energy efficiency; water efficiency; indoor environmental quality; and operation, maintenance, and building owner education.
A free, easy-to-use Green Scoring Tool helps builders and consumers measure the environmental sensitivity of the green products used in a home, based on NAHB guidelines. This score determines the green rating of a project – bronze, silver, gold, or emerald. (Emerald is the latest score introduced by NAHB and signifies “the pinnacle of achievement in residential green construction.”) Builders can use these rankings to promote the green components of a community to potential homeowners.
Consumers also can use the online Green Scoring Tool. As an example, in the energy efficiency category, a home must score a minimum 15-percent increase in efficiency above the Department of Energy’s IECC 2006 standard (which is equivalent to Energy Star requirements) to earn the NGBS bronze certification. To earn silver certification, the increase must be 35 percent; a gold certification requires a 50-percent improvement; and emerald requires 60 percent.
 HOW TIMBERLAKE MEASURES UP
Timberlake kitchen and bath cabinetry was the first cabinetry product to be Green Approved by the NAHB Research Center as part of the NAHB Research Center National Green Building Certification.
Timberlake can provide builders 3 points for kitchen and bath vanity cabinets for their compliance with CARB indoor air quality requirements. To be awarded these points, 85% of the kitchen and bath vanity cabinets installed must be Timberlake.
These points may be calculated into a builder's green project using NAHB's Green Scoring Tool.
By being Green Approved, Timberlake products are listed at the NAHB Research Center's website www.greenapprovedproducts.com.
WANT MORE INFORMATION?
- NAHB's National Green Building Program Hotline: 877-NAHB-GRN (877-624-2476)
[ View a printable NAHB National Green Building Program PDF ]
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