NAHB Seeks Members for New Healthier Homes and Communities Subcommittee

With an increasing number of federal, state and local efforts to decrease greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment, more members are seeking NAHB's expertise in best practices for high-performance building strategies. To help solidify NAHB as a thought leader in the green building space, NAHB has established a subcommittee and a number of task groups to collaborate on key issues.

The most recent addition is the Healthier Homes and Communities Subcommittee, which will define NAHB's position on healthier homes and communities. It will also establish NAHB as a recognized leader and credible voice in the industry through effective advocacy at the federal, state and local levels for voluntary, market-driven home and community design and building solutions that address indoor air quality, indoor environmental quality, occupant health, durability and comfort.

Through data and research, the newly formed subcommittee shall:

• Raise NAHB's position as an authoritative source for healthier homes and communities;
• Spur technical advances and innovation in these areas; and
• Provide high-quality education for state and local associations and NAHB members.

Task groups also housed under NAHB's Environmental Issues Committee within the Sustainability and Green Building (SGB) Subcommittee include:

• Green & Resiliency Valuation: Ensure appraisals adequately reflect the value-added costs of green building and resiliency.
• Education: Develop, market and deliver green building education and recognition programs for the residential construction industry.
• Outreach: Be the leading provider of data, information and technical expertise related to sustainable residential building. This year, the task group will work to promote newly existing SGB resources, such as the solar toolkit created this past year, NAHB's and National Association of REALTORS'® Home Performance Counts initiative, the ICC 700-2020 National Green Building Standard® (NGBS) and new education module offerings.
• Education & Green Retrofits: Identify and develop energy efficiency and high performance retrofit education tools, research and resources for the residential construction industry.
• Water Issues: Identify key water related issues that builders face in different regions of the country. The group is working to identify action items and fine-tune the group's charge in their upcoming meetings.

The SGB Subcommittee's roster and associated task groups are full this year, but the newly formed Healthier Homes and Communities Subcommittee is actively seeking new members with expertise in indoor environmental quality, indoor air quality, design, architecture, land development and more.

To learn more, contact Jaclyn Toole. You can also contact NAHB staff if you are interested in joining the SGB Subcommittee next year or receiving an update on activities. To stay current on the high-performance residential building sector, with tips on water efficiency, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and other building science strategies, follow NAHB’s Sustainability and Green Building efforts on Twitter.