Taking the Lead in LEED for Homes

January 8, 2006 – Vol.10 No.42

TAKING THE LEAD IN LEED FOR HOMES.

The U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) certification program is mostly geared toward commercial buildings - office buildings, condominium/apartment complexes, convention halls - you get the idea. It’s not really geared toward individual, single-family homes.

While owners or developers of commercial buildings might appreciate sweeping, modern, glass, steel and concrete, cutting edge designs that can easily accommodate green technologies, home owners generally are interested in conservative and traditional designs that might not be easily be adapted to green practices and technologies.

In an attempt to bring green design into home building and remodeling the USGBC is developing LEED for Homes (LEED-H) and has found industry partners in the development process. One of those partners is chemical company BASF.

To BASF the best way to prove that homes can be environmentally friendly is to build a full-sized, real-world Near-Zero Energy Home. That home is now under construction in Patterson, New Jersey and should be ready for tours by Spring.

Before then the home can be visited through BASF’s special website, Better Home Better Planet. That website was developed to highlight the home and the construction technologies involved (many of which have a BASF component) as well as be a guide to building greener homes once the home is completed.

The home is designed to be 80 percent more energy-efficient than conventional homes its size, be disaster resistant, and be faster to construct while being affordable: all real and needed changes in home design and construction.

Visit the USGBC http://www.usgbc.org/ , BASF’s Better Home Better Planet website at http://www.betterhomebetterplanet.com/ .