Copyright: Serghei Starus
The latest update to the National Green Building Standard (NGBS) has been released and is available for public use. The NGBS is a code-based green building certification program, approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), specifically focused on single-family and multi-family residential buildings, remodeling projects, and land developments.
The NGBS update process took three years and NMHC was actively involved this cycle – NMHC’s Vice President of Construction, Development and Land Use Policy, Paula Cino, served as the Vice Chair of the Consensus Committee.
“The apartment industry strongly supported the initial development of the NGBS in 2008,” said Cino. “It remains an important tool for the multifamily sector, providing technologically feasible and cost-effective green building criteria for all types of multifamily construction.”
The NGBS has been widely used throughout the industry and has been incorporated into numerous sustainability initiatives at the jurisdictional level. To date, over 216,000 homes have been certified under the NGBS, including over 192,000 multifamily units, with another 144,000 multifamily units in the certification pipeline.
Notably, this new version includes several significant changes of benefit to multifamily firms including a major expansion in the range of projects eligible for certification under the Standard. Mixed-use multifamily projects will now be able to use the NGBS for both the residential and commercial portions of buildings – eliminating the need for multiple green building programs. The update further expands the scope of the NGBS to hotels, assisted-living facilities and other boarding facilities, and provides additional compliance options to meet energy efficiency and water performance requirements.
For more information on NMHC’s advocacy work, please visit our advocacy webpage. To access the updated NGBS standard, please click here.
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