Demand for green homes is on the rise. The LEED for Homes Green Building Rating System is a third-party certification system that lets homebuilders to verify their green homes as truly green, covering important considerations like energy efficiency, water efficiency, materials and resources use, site selection and innovative design.
A LEED home is environmentally friendly, good for your buyers’ health, and good for your bottom line. USGBC offers a host of resources to help you learn how to build the most-efficient, sustainable, healthy houses in the most cost-effective ways.
Education
USGBC’s educational offerings are tailored to your needs, whether you’re just starting out or are a more more experienced green homebuilder looking to hone your craft. Courses are taught by USGBC’s expert staff, and options are available either online or in person.
Greenbuild
Stay tuned for more information on Greenbuild 2009 Residential Summit in Phoenix. Greenbuild Phoenix, Nov. 11-13, will be the biggest Greenbuild yet and a great place to meet fellow green building professionals, see some of the newest products and technologies, and attend a wide range of educational sessions.
LEED help
Local resources
- Find your local LEED for Homes Provider – Providers are local organizations with demonstrated experience and expertise in their region's market whose role in the LEED for Homes process includes marketing and rating support for builders and training, coordinating and overseeing LEED-qualified inspectors and building support staff.
- Get in touch with your local USGBC Chapter – Chapter membership is a great way to connect with green building colleagues in your area, help raise awareness about green building in your community, share strategies, resources and best practices, tour green building projects, and more.
Affordable housing
LEED for Homes represents the top tier of green homebuilding across the spectrum of housing types, and that includes affordable housing. In fact, because green homes are more efficient and result in lower utility and health-care bills, LEED for Homes is especially well-suited to affordable housing projects. To encourage affordable homebuilders to build efficient, healthy homes with LEED, USGBC will waive the registration fees for nonprofits building qualified affordable housing, and a generous grant from The Home Depot Foundation will cover verification costs.
Getting started
Once you’ve decided to build your next home project using LEED, visit the LEED for Homes Web site to register your project and get more technical information.
More green homes resources
- The Green Home Guide is USGBC's consumer-oriented resource full of information on what makes a green home, the benefits of a green home, case studies of LEED homes, green home and lifestyle tips and advice, and more.
- REGREEN – The nation’s first residential green remodeling and renovation guidelines. The free download provides best practices, case studies and other information for 10 different project types, including kitchens, bathrooms, gut rehabs and deep energy retrofits.
- Incentives for building green – Find out what tax breaks and other incentives are available for building green homes.
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