Green Building Standards | US EPA (2024)

FAQs

What are the green building standards? ›

Green Building Standards generally segment requirements into separate chapters such as energy efficiency, indoor air quality, sustainable site selection, and materials and resource use. They often set minimum benchmarks for performance and focus heavily on detailed specifications.

Green building is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and deconstruction.

The National Green Building Standard® (NGBS) is an ANSI-approved, third-party certified, residential building standard that provides a flexible and affordable way to verify your green construction practices in your single-family, multifamily, remodeling and land development projects.

The ISO 50001 is a standard that is specifically intended for product or service companies in the energy sector and in general for other companies. The emphasis is on the end product with better and more efficient use of energy. ISO 50001 has a more general scope of Green Building standards.

A model code that contains minimum requirements for increasing the environmental and health performance of buildings, sites and structures. Generally, it applies to the design and construction of all types of buildings except single-family homes, multi-family homes with 3 or fewer stories, and modular and mobile homes.

In the United States, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, developed by the USGBC, serves as the default standard for green building.

Developed by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED is similar to BREEAM and is applicable to multiple building types, including new developments and retrofits. LEED-certified buildings have been assessed against specific criteria, such as energy and water efficiency and emission reduction.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the world's most widely used green building rating system. LEED certification provides a framework for healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving green buildings, which offer environmental, social and governance benefits.

The NGBS is designed specifically for residential construction, development, and renovation. LEED NC is intended for use in the construction of both commercial office buildings and multifamily residential buildings.

What is the most popular green building certification? ›

LEED Green Building Certification (v4. 1) Managed by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is one of the most well-known green building certifications in the world. Their highest level of certification, LEED Platinum, is a dream target for many architects and developers.

The California Green Building Standards Code, also known as CALGreen, is Part 11 of Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations. It is the first-in-the-nation green building standards code and its history, although relatively short, is significant.

ISO 14001 is a certification system used by business to certify that the site has an environmental management system. LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – is a rating system for construction.

To earn the NGBS Green+ RESILIENCE certification, a builder must provide documentation confirming their home/building has been designed and constructed to provide at least 30% enhanced resilience and durability beyond the structural requirements of the IBC or IRC, as applicable, and must show that they have on-site ...

Residential buildings have special green building requirements. They need to be sustainable but also comfortable for the people living there. Green homes can have energy-saving appliances, water-saving fixtures, and non-toxic materials. The layout of the building can also be designed to improve lighting and airflow.

Green Development Standards (GDS) are voluntary or mandatory measures created by municipalities to encourage environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable design.

Green IT aims to minimize the negative effects of IT operations on the environment by designing, manufacturing, operating and disposing of servers, PCs and other computer-related products in an environmentally friendly manner.

LEED Zero Carbon considers operational energy and occupant transportation, while ILFI Zero Carbon considers operational energy and embodied carbon. ILFI Zero Carbon focuses on reducing, disclosing and offsetting carbon emissions, while LEED Zero Carbon only focuses on offsetting emissions.