Groups to Promote Green Home Certification in Texas
The U.S. Green Building Council and the Home Builders Association of Greater Dallas are joining forces. Through their LEED and Green Built North Texas programs, USGBC and the HBA of Greater Dallas will work together to increase the availability and awareness of healthy, efficient, environmentally friendly homes in North Texas.
LEED and Green Built North Texas are both programs that certify that a home is green.
Green Built North Texas, a program from the HBA of Greater Dallas, is a voluntary partnership of local home builders, industry supporters, and sponsors committed to green homes in North Central Texas. Green Built North Texas has a regionally specific green building construction protocol that Dallas HBA members have deemed essential in order for a home to be recognized by the program.
LEED is administered by the USGBC. It is the national benchmark for green building, and LEED for Homes focuses on the specific challenges and opportunities presented by homebuilding. Like a nutrition label, it scores a home's performance in eight key environmental and human health categories.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area is home to more than a dozen LEED-certified homes and nearly 1,000 registered Green Built North Texas homes.
"This innovative agreement is bringing the national perspective of the U.S. Green Building Council and the local expertise of the Home Builders Association of Greater Dallas together to give homeowners in the Dallas metropolitan area greater access to quality homes that are healthy, efficient and affordable," said Nate Kredich, vice president of Residential Market Development, USGBC.
"Working together greatly enhances our ability promote market-driven green building, provide the public with valuable industry information and foster positive public policy in North Texas," said Phil Crone, director of Green Building Programs, HBA of Greater Dallas.
The agreement will allow LEED and Green Built North Texas to complement each other, furthering green home awareness, education, and access in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The agreement establishes LEED for Homes as a path toward participation in the Green Built North Texas program, and it enables Green Built North Texas to serve as a conduit toward LEED certification. As always, homebuilders can choose to voluntarily participate in just one of the programs, both of the programs, or neither program. The new agreement simply makes it easier for projects to maximize what each program has to offer.
The agreement also promises to bring greater education and awareness among homebuilders, trades specialists, and consumers in the Dallas metropolitan area. USGBC and HBA's diverse memberships, chapter programs, and existing partnerships will assist in the creation of education programs that address the latest in green building practices. The partnership will also give each organization a greater to work with local governments and state agencies to craft green building policies that promote a credible, accessible, and consistent policy landscape.