The Big Orange goes Green

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), in conjunction with The Home Depot, has launched an online green home products database. The database: leed.homedepot.com is a special microsite within The Home Depot’s website that features products geared toward green home building, many of which may contribute towards earning LEED points and prerequisites for the LEED for Homes program, making it easier for homeowners and builders to find the products they need.

Currently, more than 2,500 products sold at The Home Depot are listed on the website.

The green housing market is growing rapidly, having tripled since 2008. Green homes, which comprised 17 per cent of new residential construction last year, are expected to increase by 29 per cent to 38% per cent of the market by 2016, according to a report last week by McGraw-Hill Construction, a part of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

Nearly 18,000 housing units have received LEED for Homes certification, a number that has seen significant growth in recent years. Fifty percent of LEED for Homes projects are classified in the affordable housing sector, echoing a trend found in last week’s report from The National Association of Home Builders and the Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI). The data shows that U.S.  housing affordability rose to a record level during the fourth quarter of 2011.

USGBC strives to integrate the principles and practices of social and economic justice within those of sustainable building – ensuring that low-income families will maintain access to decent, safe, and affordable housing, even as society’s standards for what is decent and safe continue to rise.

Green building offers opportunities to reduce energy and resource consumption, enabling lower utility costs and critical savings for owners, funding agencies and residents alike. Green developments are also designed to offer superior indoor air quality to protect residents’ health and reduce health-care costs, and often provide better access to public transit and local amenities, decreasing the financial burden of transportation. The green home product database released with Home Depot will assist homeowners and green building professional to achieve these tenants of sustainability, health and affordability in their housing projects.