Published October 2001

Sustainable housing at heart of Built Green program

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

There’s a new logo to look for when buying a home, a logo that assures consumers that a house has been certified to include cost-effective and health-conscious features and that its construction was environmentally sensitive.

That logo — a house, a tree and a salmon circled by green arrows — is the symbol of Built Green, a program created and operated by the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties in partnership with King and Snohomish counties and the Fannie Mae Foundation.

Built Green’s mission, according to the Master Builders Association, is “to work in partnership to improve and protect the valuable natural features and environmental resources within King and Snohomish counties’ cities and communities to promote safer, healthier buildings.”

To do that, the association has developed a “menu driven” points system, said Doug Lengel, Education Director for the Master Builders Association.

The system, encompassed in a six-page checklist, takes into account construction techniques and materials that protect the surrounding environment and promote energy efficiency as well as indoor air quality.

For example, a house receives points if the builder preserves existing native vegetation as landscaping, locates the water heater within 20 pipe feet of highest use or uses formaldehyde-free fiberglass insulation.

The checklist also includes a section devoted to educating the homebuyer about operation and maintenance, with points being earned for educating homeowners about fish-friendly moss control, furnishing four compact fluorescent light bulbs or installing composting toilets.

“The reason we’ve included that is because we’re seeing more and more research that indicates that homeowners are not terribly knowledgeable about how to maintain and operate their homes, especially from a sustainability standpoint,” Lengel said.

All these points add up to earn a one-star, two-star (100-point minimum) or three-star (180-point minimum) Built Green rating for the house.

To certify a house, remodeling job, multifamily construction project or land development, the builder or developer must first sign up for the program, receiving a manual with the checklists, a detailed explanation of the checklist items and a resource section.

The builder or developer then goes through the checklist with the home he or she wishes to certify and sends the list to the Master Builders Association, which verifies that the paperwork has been filled out correctly. If everything checks out, the association sends out a certificate and marketing materials, such as yard signs or window decals signifying the home is Built Green.

A lot of builders are framing those certificates to put in their model homes or include it in the homeowner’s package, Lengel said.

“One of our largest builders in the association and the largest builder in the Built Green program is Quadrant,” Lengel said. “And they have actually committed that every home they build from now on in Puget Sound will be a three-star home — the highest certification at present.”

Builders and developers aren’t the only ones who can participate in the Built Green program, Lengel said, but they are the only ones eligible to register a home for Built Green certification.

Associate members, such as real estate agents, bankers, architects or retailers, are those who support Built Green and want to be a part of the marketing that goes along with it, but they cannot submit a project checklist, Lengel said, “because it’s our belief that (builders or developers) are the people that have the most direct control over what actually gets built.”

Cost to join the program varies. Builders or developers pay $100 annually if they are members of the Master Builders Association, $250 if they are not. Associate members pay an annual $100 participation fee. There also are project fees per project certification.

Since the program kicked off more than a year ago, more than 400 homes have been certified Built Green, Lengel said.

For more information, call Lengel at 425-451-7920, Ext. 24; send e-mail to dlengel@mba-ks.com; or visit
www.mba-ks.com/builtgreen on the Web.

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