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February 16, 2008
Department of Energy and National Association of Homebuilders Launch New Initiatives at the International Builders Show
Consumers are demanding more efficient, greener homes, and builders are finding ever-increasing challenges to market and deliver them. Technical and marketing barriers - some as simple as trade contractor's lack of familiarity with technology, some as complex as builder's inexperience in marketing improved performance - are preventing the market from adopting green building practices as quickly as some would like. The public and private sectors are responding by creating new, voluntary programs for builders to assist them in overcoming these challenges, and for consumers to assist them in understanding building performance.
Two such initiatives launched this past week at the International Builder's Show in Orlando, Florida. Ironically with no connection to the holiday whatsoever, both initiatives launched on Valentine's Day. The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) launched their new National Green Building Program and the Department of Energy launched the Builders Challenge.
The NAHB National Green Building Program is intended to allow builders and consumers to have a standardized, nationally-based method to evaluate the performance of homes. Behind the scenes, it seems that the NAHB has woken up to the fact that if they don't get ahead of the curve, the curve may get ahead of them - in terms of the creation of new building code and policy that will require increased building performance standards. This initiative tells me that they're being proactive in creating an initiative that can guide policy, codes and standards. Not surprising for such a politically savvy organization, and in this case quite a boon to the green building industry.
The DOE's Builders Challenge is focused on energy performance, using a nifty new scale created for the initiative called the EnergySmart Home Scale (E-Scale). This scale allows consumers to see the energy performance of their home at a glance, on a simple chart. The initiative is based on the DOE's Building America Program - a research program that's been churning out excellent technical information for more than a decade. The Builders Challenge takes this information to the market through simple performance packages and the commitment to drive home performance by calling on the industry to deliver 220,000 homes that meet Challenge performance standards (a 70 on the E-Scale, which is significantly better than a home that performs even to Energy Star standards, and about 30% more efficient than a standard new home for example) by the year 2012.
This blogger has to admit to being a bit biased - I've been working with the Department of Energy for the past year on the Builders Challenge - and I'm delighted to see that they've launched the initiative, and the E-Scale, after some deliberation. But, despite being biased, my unbiased self thinks the E-Scale is a great tool for consumers and builders. It's about time someone created a simple, consumer-friendly tool for evaluating home performance. Now I'm just hoping that everyone, the NAHB's Green Building Program included, will pick up the E-Scale and use it.
What are your thoughts on these two new initiatives, and the new E-Scale?
Posted by Stacy Hunt at February 16, 2008 6:58 AM
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My thought is that rather than make things simpler they're making it more complicated. Rather than improve and clarify existing programs, they're adding new stuff.
This is exactly what NAHB wants: in confusing the market by adding more programs, they can lower the bar. Now they've got the National Green Building Program, the National Green Building Standard, and the National Green Home Building Guidelines. (and they used to be involved with the Green Building Initiative, which they realized carried too much greenwash baggage).
At the press conference, Mr. Jones announced that the NAHB program is voluntary whereas LEED is mandatory. Huh? when asked about it, he backpedaled and said, well, LEED has many mandatory sections and ours gives flexibility. "Do you mean to say that there are no mandatory requirements of the NAHB program?" Well, uh, no... we have mandatory requirements and optional extra points. "Isn't that the same as LEED?" at this point, an NAHB staffer at the back of the room gave the throat-cut sign and the press conference was over. NAHB's message? LEED is bad, we're good.
I don't think the E scale is meant to deceive the public as I believe the NAHB program is. I think the E scale is an attempt to make it more understandable, but, as is typical of the government, it's not. This is being rolled out by DOE, so it ignores Energy Star which is administered by EPA. This is typical bureaucratic intelligence. What they need to do is work together. If a normal home is as energy efficient as an Energy Star home, they need to raise the bar for Energy Star and challenge the builders to build 220,000 High-bar Energy Star homes. They can come up with a better rating scale if they want to, but they shouldn't muddy the water with more programs if they don't need to. And a scale with lower scores being better is unclear unless it's made very clear. Maybe they should call it the path to Zero Energy scale.
Posted by: Dan at February 18, 2008 9:01 AM
