News

JUNE 28, 2016

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has announced that The Taft School Faculty Home, verified by Steven Winter Associates, Inc., is a recipient of the LEED Homes Awards in the Outstanding Single Family Project of the Year category. The annual LEED Homes Awards recognize architects, developers, homebuilders, and projects that have demonstrated outstanding leadership and innovation in the residential green building marketplace.

“Homes represent a critical piece of the buildings industry and our daily life,” said Rick Fedrizzi, CEO and founding chair, USGBC. “We applaud these amazing honorees for their significant contribution to greening the residential sector by implementing strategies that positively impact the environment and enhance the health and well-being of their occupants.”

The Taft School faculty home serves as a high performance residence and learning lab for students. It is Connecticut’s first building to achieve the LEED Platinum certification under the Building, Design and Construction rating system for Homes using the new and more stringent LEEDv4. The design and construction process is used as a teaching tool for science classes. The students monitor the energy use and there is also a vegetable garden, chickens, and a rain garden on site as part of a comprehensive sustainable site.

“It’s truly a pleasure to work with a client who is willing to embrace third-party certifications and subsequently share that process,” stated SWA’s Karla Butterfield, the LEED Green Rater for the project. “SWA has collaborated with Elizabeth [Disalvo] of Trillium Architects and Chris [Trolle] from BPC Green Builders on several projects; it’s amazing how effortlessly they incorporate sustainability into the design and construction. Even with eight different certification programs to comply with, the verification process was made easy working with this professional, dedicated team.”

The LEED Homes Award winners include multi-family, single-family, and affordable housing projects and companies that are trailblazers in the residential sector and have prioritized incorporating sustainability within their projects in 2015. This year, for the first time, the awards also recognize the “LEED Homes Power Builders,” which USGBC developed to honor an elite group of developers and builders who have exhibited an outstanding commitment to LEED and the green building movement within the residential sector. In order to be considered as a Power Builder, developers and builders must have LEED certified 90 percent of their homes/unit count built in 2015. Homes at any LEED certification level – certified, silver, gold or platinum – were eligible for consideration.

LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) has become the world’s most recognized rating system for green buildings. The LEED for Homes rating system was created in 2008 as a way for single-family homes and multi-family buildings to achieve LEED certification. LEED for Homes projects undergo a technically rigorous process to become certified, including multiple on-site inspections and diagnostic tests. Quality control and quality assurance are built into the process so that builders, architects and homeowners can rest assured they get what they paid for and specified. More than 1.2 million residential units are currently participating in LEED. USGBC’s recent Green Building Economic Impact Study found that the residential green construction market is expected to grow from $55 million in 2015 to $100.4 million in 2018, representing a year-over-year growth of 24.5 percent.

To learn more about LEED for Homes, visit usgbc.org/homes.

About Steven Winter Associates
Steven Winter Associates, Inc. (SWA) provides research, consulting, and advisory services to improve commercial, residential, and multifamily built environments for private and public sector clients. The firm specializes in energy, sustainability, and accessibility consulting as well as certification, research & development, and compliance services. For more information, visit www.swinter.com.

About the U.S. Green Building Council
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is committed to a prosperous and sustainable future through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings. USGBC works toward its mission of market transformation through its LEED green building program, robust educational offerings, an international network of local community leaders, the annual Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, the Center for Green Schools, and advocacy in support of public policy that encourages and enables green buildings and communities. For more information, visit usgbc.org, explore the Green Building Information Gateway (GBIG), and connect on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.