2010 GBC Char: Andrew Catropa, Holiday Builders 

Green building brings together a vast array of practices and techniques to reduce and ultimately eliminate the impacts of buildings on the environment and human health. But effective green buildings are more than just a random collection of environmental friendly technologies.They require careful, systemic attention to the full life cycle impacts of the resources embodied in the building and to the resource consumption and pollution emissions over the building's complete life cycle. The Green Building Council will define and apply their standards to local building.

The Next meeting will be May 27th, at Noon- Please RSVP and bring your own lunch.

Click here for the Green Building Council directory

Florida Green Building Coalition Green Building Standards Forms and instructions

Green Home Documents Version 5

Green Home Designation Standard - 88kb

The standard that describes the complete designation process and requirements.

Schedule A (Checklist) - 367kb

Checklist which is both a snapshot of the points available by each technical item and an application form

Green Home Checklist Tool - 645kb

The Green Home Checklist Interactive Tool.

Green Home Standard Reference Guide - 418kb

The Reference Guide that describes in detail the requirements for earning each point indicated on the checklist.

Green Home Standard Agent Disclosure Form - 84kb

A disclosure form that each certifying agent must present to the builder/homeowner

Green Home Certifying Agent Registration Form - 27kb

A registration form required to become a certifying agent

Green Home Standard Modification Form - 63kb

For submitting requests for changes to any of the standard documents 

Green Home Standard Modification Form - 47kb

For submitting requests for changes to any of the standard documents

Contact Lisa Brusca for information regarding the HBCA Green Building Council- 254-3700 or at lisa@hbca-brevard.org

http://www.floridagreenbuilding.org/db/

The Green Building Council meets on the 4th Thursday of every month at Noon. Annual dues for the Green Building Council are $50.00

Overview

Who Should Attend: 

• Single family builders
• Multifamily builders
• Remodelers
• Developers
• Land planners
• Architects and designers
• Energy raters, home inspectors, utilities staff
• Product manufacturers and suppliers

 Get contacts, tools and ideas that are good for both the environment and your bottom line. The NAHB National Green Building Conference is the only national conference targeted to green building for the mainstream residential building industry. Network with designers and suppliers, attend exceptional education sessions and develop the skills you need for profitable green building. 

Partnership Strengthens Sustainable Housing in Florida

By Edie Ousley

Green is no longer just another color. Just like location, location, location…green is now one of the primary considerations when building a new home.

While green building has been around for years, its popularity has only grown in recent years as more and more consumers have learned the value of investing in green.

Consider that in 1999, consumers didn’t talk about carbon-neutral or zero-energy homes, and the American public was largely unconcerned about global warming. At the time, there were only 7,000 Energy Star-certified homes. Now, there are more than 800,000. As demand for green built homes has increased, the Florida Home Builders Association (FHBA) has taken a pro-active lead in promoting this very type of construction. In 2006, FHBA endorsed the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC) Green Home Standard, a statewide green building program that addresses Florida climate-specific issues, unlike national green building programs.

Through a partnership between FHBA and FGBC, the two organizations have helped unify Florida’s green building standards by advocating the FGBC Green Home Designation Standard and Green Development Designation Standard as the “green standards” for builders to follow. In addition, the partnership has encouraged incentives for builders and developers whose projects are certified under FGBC Standards, and it has developed a wealth of resources to educate builders and the public on the health and economic benefits of green buildings.

To date, more than 1,700 homes have been FGBC certified, according to Suzanne Cook, FGBC Executive Director. And thanks to endorsements by the Florida League of Cities and Florida League of Mayors, there’s an increase in FGBC Green Local Government Standard certifications. Under the local government certification process, municipalities typically provide incentive and rebate programs for energy- and water-efficient construction practices.

FHBA builder member Kip Carpenter has been building green homes for more than 25 years. Until 2001, Carpenter didn’t have a green certification program available to help put a “seal of approval” on his construction products – an approval that helps endorse his homes as certified green.

“This allows me to have a third party affiliation that says we’re green and that we know what we’re doing,” said Carpenter, owner of A Carpenters Construction Company, a single-family, custom home builder in Tallahassee. “The FGBC certification process is a smooth, it’s not very expensive, and it allows plenty of options for achieving green certification.”

With soaring gas, food and energy prices pinching pocketbooks, sustainable housing is more important than ever, according to FHBA Chief Executive Officer J. Emmett Reed, CAE.

“Consumers realize now more than ever the importance of sustainable housing…the benefits it provides to our environment and to their wallet,” Reed explained. “Green building has become more attractive because it produces lower energy bills. We’re pleased to be able to provide consumers with a wealth of contractors that understand the importance of building green, and understand the important role the FGBC green standards play in providing sustainable housing.”

It’s Not Just Cool; It’s Efficient

For consumers, buying green isn’t just the cool thing to do…it’s the cost effective way to buy a new home or remodel their existing home. A 2007 survey by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) revealed that reduced energy costs was the number one reason respondents would choose to buy a green home or remodel their existing home to make it greener. The second and third reasons were because it would be healthier and because it’s the right thing to do for the environment.

Per square foot, new homes consume less than two-thirds the energy of older homes for heating and air conditioning, according to federal utility use audits. Energy efficiency is an important driver in the green building movement and usually accounts for about half the costs of making a traditional home a green home, according to NAHB studies. While consumers have become more educated on the need and reasons for buying green homes, they are often confused about what it means for a home to be green.

“Greenwashing” – the act of misleading consumers about environmental practices, products or services – is an ongoing problem, according to a report in The Sustainable Future. To help separate green from greenwashing, more and more Florida builders are incorporating the FGBC designation standards into their building practices. Common benchmarks found in green building include:

* Energy – Optimized through whole-house systems design that includes, effective insulation; high-performance windows; high-efficiency lighting and appliances; right-sizing the HVAC system.

* Indoor air – VOC-free finishes, adhesives and carpeting, radon-resistant construction; mechanical and natural ventilation.

* Water – Low-flow toilets and showerheads; rainwater harvesting; graywater recycling.

* Landscaping – Little or no lawn; native plants; limited irrigation.

* Building products – Materials with recycled content; salvaged materials; lumber from certified forests.

* Siting/land use – Conservation of natural features; compact development; access to transit.

Peter Yost, a speaker at the recent NAHB National Green Building Conference, forecasts that green building will see even bigger changes as this type of construction moves into the mainstream. Among Yost’s predictions are:

• More emphasis on water efficiency,
• A stronger link between construction and transportation,
• “Passive survivability” will move into the mainstream,
• Changes in mortgages, insurance and appraisals, and
• More innovative products.

The strong partnership between the Florida Home Builders Association and the Florida Green Building Coalition is helping to ensure that sustainable housing is more than the color “green” – it’s a way of living. 

FGBC Certification: Avoid Key Mistakes

By Stephanie Thomas-Rees

In 2006, the Florida Home Builders Association signed an agreement to support the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC). Since then, FHBA members have been looking to attain the FGBC Green Home Certification for their homes. As with any new program, there are always common questions and mistakes. Oscar Toledo, engineering assistant, who processes many of the certification applications and Robin Vieira, director of Buildings Research Division, both of the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), list and explain some of the most common mistakes made in the application submittals:

1) Add up the points…Correctly. It’s amazing how something so easy creates so many problems. So check and double check your submission.

2) Calculate the minimum points needed to qualify…Correctly. Each of the categories has a minimum. However, if you don’t reach a minimum in one category, you can make it up by more in the other ones. Here’s the catch. It has to be double the number you missed. For example, it takes 100 points to attain certification. But if you miss one category by 4 points, you have to make up 8 points elsewhere, which means your overall certification pass points are actually 108.

3) Document properly. Make sure your certifying agent not only knows which points have REQUIRED documentation, but that they are actually sending it in. Without required documentation, no points can be awarded and it’s an overall lower score for your submittal.

4) Floor joist perimeter insulated and sealed. A home must be at least two stories tall to claim this credit. One story slab homes don’t have this option.

5) Get supporting signatures. Several FGBC categories require a sign-off by other professionals. While the sign off by the Home Energy Rating System (HERS) rater is seldom missing, the signature by the Florida Yards and Neighborhoods (FY&N) agent often is. Soon, it will be possible to also have a Florida Water Star certifier sign off on water options, too.

6) Maintain pervious surface area as a percentage of lot size. Often times this is miscalculated. You must include the entire lot size in the denominator.

7) No “double dipping”! If someone is taking points for healthy flooring, then they cannot receive points in eco-friendly flooring.

8) No “double dipping”! AGAIN. Don’t keep doing it. If it isn’t allowed on flooring, it isn’t allowed on insulation either.

9) Job site waste management credit can still be taken even if you are not developing a construction and demolition waste management plan. There are two waste management credits. The C&D plan requires submittal of a “plan” and obtains 2 points. Job site waste qualifies for up to 4 points if six or more waste management strategies are implemented (see pages 40 and 41 of the reference guide for more detail).

10) Know the requirements for each point. For example, for the ventilation and ceiling fan credit it requires fans to be installed in each bedroom and each major living area of the house and there must be windows on at least two walls in the same rooms. Thus homes with a bedroom with windows on one outside wall will not qualify.

11) Use the new fee structure. Version 5.0 has some modifications. If the builder is both a FHBA and FGBC member, the fee is discounted to $50 each certified home. If the builder is only one or the other, then the fee is $75. If neither, the fee is $100.

To help speed application approval, FSEC has developed a spreadsheet tool that addresses most of the submittal problems mentioned here. Make sure your certifying agent knows that it provides a checklist of required submittal materials based on the green items checked. Look for it on the FloridaGreenBuilding.org web site.

Stephanie Thomas-Rees, research architect in the Building Research Division of the Florida Solar Energy Center, has been involved with high performance buildings research since 2001. She conducts research and provides technical assistance as a member of the Building America Industrialized Housing Partnership, sponsored by the US Department of Energy. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Florida Green Building Coaltion (FGBC), a Green Home Certifying Agent, and the co-author of Eco-House: A Design Strategy.