NMHC Notebook: Green Standard Designed for Apartments

NMHC Notebook: Green Standard Designed for Apartments
Published: September 01, 2007

By Paula Cino and Michael Tucker, NMHC

Given the environment these days—a world of rising energy costs, consumer concern about climate change, and federal and state tax incentives for energy efficiency— it's no wonder that green is such a fashionable color.

But what exactly defines a "green" multifamily building? That's a question many apartment firms have been struggling with. As the industry explores green development practices, it has quickly discovered that there is no such thing as a multifamily green building standard. Several nationally recognized green building programs, including the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, Green Globes and Enterprise's Green Communities, offer design guidelines, but all are generally a poor fit with most apartment construction. LEED, for example, was originally developed with high-rise commercial properties in mind, and the USGBC has only recently turned its attention to residential development with its LEED for Homes rating system. Even LEED for Homes, however, was designed for single-family construction; it remains unclear how the system will address multifamily buildings.

More importantly, LEED for Homes, like other green building rating systems, was crafted as a voluntary program that established aspirational green building goals. The USGBC has consistently maintained that LEED for Homes is designed to target the top 25 percent of new homes in terms of environmental responsibility and was never intended to be a baseline green building standard. As a result, LEED rating systems include complex and time-consuming certification and documentation requirements and inflexible technical provisions that can prove problematic in mainstream apartment construction.

Unfortunately, despite these limitations, many jurisdictions have used LEED and other green rating systems to define green building for the purposes of receiving incentives like expedited permitting, density bonuses and tax benefits. Apartment firms seeking these incentives have long been frustrated by this since these rating systems are an imperfect fit with their product type.

In a new twist, local policymakers nationwide are moving beyond making compliance with these rating systems voluntary and are mandating that new developments within their municipality meet them. Absent an alternative, many localities are using LEED rating systems as minimum green building thresholds, even though they do not adequately address multifamily construction; were never intended to apply to all construction and are not written in building code language.

But, help is on the way, in the form of a new National Green Building Standard (NGBS). This new standard is set to debut in 2008 as the first green building standard developed through a nationally recognized consensus process and it specifically addresses multifamily construction.

The National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) is serving on the committee that is drafting this new standard, which is being produced in conjunction with the International Code Council (ICC), publishers of the International Building Code and the International Energy Conservation Code among others, and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The new National Green Building Standard is noteworthy not only for its focus on apartment construction, but also because it is being written in building code language and developed through the consensus process.

A Code-Based Standard

A major problem with existing green building certification systems is that they are not written in building code language. That creates problems in implementation, incompatibility with existing building codes and standards, and uncertainty in enforcement. The new NGBS solves this by being a code-based standard.

The NGBS offers developers a sufficiently comprehensive green building baseline so that it will meet the needs of localities that want to encourage or require building design and performance that exceeds existing code requirements, while simultaneously providing apartment firms with uniform guidance on green building practices. And, because the new National Green Building Standard is written in code language, it can easily be incorporated into a municipality's existing codes. At the same time, voluntary green building rating systems like LEED will continue to serve as a valuable certification tool for very high-performing properties.

An ANSI-Certified Process

Another problem with existing green building programs is they were largely developed without input from the apartment sector. Instead, the NGBS is being developed through a time-tested consensus process including a wide variety of stakeholders. In addition to the NMHC, NAHB and other industry representatives, building officials from 11 cities ranging from Texas to Michigan are on the Consensus Committee, as are representatives of environmental interests like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy, and Portland, Ore.'s Green Building Initiative.

Importantly, the committee also includes members from several voluntary green building programs including the USGBC and Green Globes. The active involvement of industry stakeholders and local officials in the development process ensures that the NGBS is not just a theoretical exercise but will be usable in the actual development, permitting and construction processes.

To assure consumers and local officials that the new NGBS is a credible standard and not a developer-driven product, the NGBS will be an American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-certified standard. ANSI's seal of approval on the development process is a critical symbol of credibility; it proves that the standard was developed in an open forum of a variety of committee members, and has been thoroughly vetted by experts and open for public input.

Paula Cino is director of energy and environment for the Washington, D.C.-based National Multi Housing Council (NMHC). Michael Tucker is NMHC's communications director.

To comment on this article, contact Diana Mosher, editor-in-chief, at dmosher@multi-housingnews.com