Environmental laws to know when constructing a new home

Federal environmental rating programs to know when constructing a new home

One of the best things about living in this vast country of ours is the diversity. One of the worst things is the diversity of laws and regulations that can seemingly change by walking five feet in any direction. For example, just this year a county in California became the first in the nation to make low carbon concrete’s use required by law in new construction projects.

Point is, there are far too many variances across the country to be able to cover them all in one place. Even finding tax breaks can be a labyrinth due to the myriad regional programs out there, as we’ve covered before.

What we can do, however, is explain the three federal guidelines that rate or certify homes as being energy efficient. By using them as a baseline, you’ll be better prepared to navigate the legal requirements that may apply to your home, and at the very least they’ll give you a starting point when going through design decisions with a contractor. And, if nothing else, they’ll help you be a steward for our planet’s future.

The three programs any home builder should be familiar with

There are three main green building standards that apply to residential homes, which we’ll cover here: The National Green Building Standard (NGBS), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), and The Living Building Challenge. Each provides different levels of certifications or ratings dependent on the criteria you achieve, some of which may be mandated by your area, others that could potentially earn you tax credits.

There’s a lot of overlap between the three, so we’ll mostly focus on the differences between the three. But before doing so, let’s take a glance at the criteria all three programs measure:

• Sustainable sites, meaning the area your home is constructed is handled in a way not overly detrimental to the planet.
• Energy efficiency (which you’re likely familiar with) is essentially measuring how much energy is consumed to perform certain tasks throughout your home.
• Water efficiency, measuring excess water.
• Materials and resource use. This analyzes the environmental impact, and amount of, materials used during the construction of a new home. A good rule of thumb here is to always try to use as many locally-sourced resources as possible.
• Indoor environmental quality. Even the biggest environmental grinch would want to follow this protocol. It’s the quality of a building’s interior design related to the health and well-being of its occupants. This can include measuring lighting, air quality, and humidity.

Now, let’s take a look at some of their differences.

National Green Building Standard (NGBS)

This program was created through a partnership between the National Association of Homebuilders, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, and the International Code Council. It provides four certification levels for constructing homes: bronze, silver, gold, and emerald. Due to the multitude of construction and design factors that go into making a new house environmentally friendly, it allows homebuilders a large amount of flexibility in choosing what practices they want to follow to achieve a certain level of certification.

The primary benefit here is that some practices have larger impacts in areas with differing weather than others, so a builder isn’t locked into practices that may not be cost effective in the long run. The best part is that as a homeowner paying for the construction, you’ll know exactly what each sustainable decision is, and how it works.

That’s because of a key unique aspect to achieving an NGBS certification is the requirement to educate the owner of a building about the green infrastructure and how to maintain it.This means you’ll have the knowledge of how all of your systems work at your disposal as a homeowner once the contractors are long gone.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)

This builds on the NGBS’s goals by applying green energy best practices to entire neighborhoods and communities. Now, you may think that as an individual that may not make much of a difference to you. But as the demand for environmentally friendly homes continues to grow, building a green home in a highly rated LEED neighborhood could prove to be a smart financial investment if you decide to sell, as it can only grow the value of a home moving forward.

At its core, the LEED awards points on a 100-point scale measuring the environmental impacts of different design and construction choices throughout a home or neighborhood. A highly rated neighborhood means it’s not just your home dedicated to following sustainable practices. You know the old saying, “location, location, location.” If your home’s in a community with a high LEED score, it’ll be more desirable to people across the board moving forward.

Another reason looking into this certification is beneficial is it can quickly lead you to what some of your local environmental building regulations may be. Many come from the programs in this article, so if you notice every home is following a specific environmental guideline, it could indicate a legal requirement.

The Living Building Challenge

Created by the International Living Future Institute, these guidelines are similar to LEED in that they are focused on the environmental impact on a community-wide, yet micro, level. The stated focus is to create protocols “supporting buildings that are restorative, regenerative, and an integral part of the local ecology and culture.”

A key difference here is a focus on aesthetic (and affordable) design that also ensures new homes and buildings follow environmental best practices. An easy example, from a purely aesthetic standpoint, is Santa Fe, New Mexico’s Pueblo Revival architecture. These communities built in the traditional Native American style of the region would score points for using locally sourced materials and efficient design principles.

As noted earlier, all of these are simply guidelines providing best practices to follow. But each can help guide you in a great direction as you start to consider building a new home.