Green Standard’s Scope Expands, New Committee Members Wanted

Home Innovation Research Labs has expanded the scope of the next edition of the National Green Building Standard (NGBS) to include commercial portions of primarily residential buildings and assisted living facilities. The change is designed to increase the usability and flexibility of the standard.

“We proposed to expand the NGBS scope to include multifamily buildings with non-residential space for two important reasons,” said Michelle Foster, vice president of innovation services at Home Innovation, which leads the NGBS Green Certification program.

“First, multifamily buildings increasingly include non-residential space, such as ground-floor retail, to serve the residents and surrounding community. These buildings are essentially residential buildings, but have complementary accessory occupancies and their developers want to have the choice to use NGBS to earn green certification.

“Second, multifamily buildings that incorporate occupancies like this — which provide access and service for the residents — exemplify sustainability at its best. They allow a building’s residents and neighbors walkable access to groceries, restaurants, dry cleaning, banks or other day-to-day necessities.”

In light of this change in scope, the committee that develops the standard is looking for new members with expertise in mixed-used buildings or commercial occupancies. Individuals must apply to serve on the committee by Nov. 5.

The committee is also accepting proposed changes related to the expanded scope. The deadline to submit changes is Nov. 20.

Home Innovation, which has certified more than 100,000 projects to the standard since the first edition was developed in 2008, also serves as secretariat of the standard development process.

For questions related to the NGBS standards development process, please contact Vladimir Kochkin, Home Innovation director of applied engineering, at 301-430-6249.