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Green Certification Launched in Central New Mexico
The Albuquerque-based Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico launched a voluntary green building certification program for home builders on March 3, one week prior to the National Green Building Conference in its city on March 11-14.
Based on NAHB’s Model Green Home Building Guidelines, the program will provide home buyers with assurance that their new home incorporates environmentally efficient, water-conserving, cost-effective construction techniques.
“We’re very excited to be able to start this program in time for the conference,” said Steve Hale of Hale & Sun Construction Inc., a custom builder and infill developer in Albuquerque who spearheaded the project. “I hope it will help inspire other builders attending the conference to launch programs at their own associations.”
The program has three components: education, verification and marketing, Hale said. Builders and developers submitting their projects for review are awarded points based on the home’s insulating qualities, the materials used in construction, conservation programs and energy use. The more points, the higher the level: Bronze, Silver or Gold.
The results are verified by the association, which plans to hire an administrator for the program, with a volunteer committee reviewing the projects that are submitted. The association will pay for the program by charging participating companies a $150 annual fee and an additional per-project fee of $200 for a custom home and $75 for each house in a production builder’s development. The association is also planning a green building subdivision designation.
The creators of the certification wanted to ensure that non-member builders can also participate in the program to make it more palatable to city and county officials. But to encourage association membership, non-members pay double the fee. ‘We want to make it more cost-effective for interested builders to join the association,” Hale said.
The fees collected will be used to pay for education and marketing. Hale wants to make sure that every builder and developer knows about the program and how it works — and that area consumers know about it, too.
“Once a builder is working with the model guidelines, I don’t want there to be more barriers. I want to make the program easy to participate in because the guidelines themselves are tough,” Hale said. Meanwhile, the education program can help boost consumer demand for participating builders and developers.
The association has already signed on its first program sponsor: the Public Service Company of New Mexico, the utility supplying electricity and natural gas to most households in the state.
Association leaders planned to meet last week with elected officials in Albuquerque to gain support for taking the voluntary program statewide, he said. “The mayor (Martin J. Chavez) is pretty excited,” Hale said, and is especially looking forward to the Green Building Conference, when he will deliver the closing remarks March 14.
Preregistration is now closed for the Green Building Conference and the pre-conference Certified Graduate Builder course, “Green Building for Building Professionals,” is full.
 Green Building Conference Registration Available Onsite
Registration is available onsite for the Saturday, March 11 golf tournament at the new Sandia Golf Club, for the National Green Building Awards gala dinner Sunday, March 12, and for the seminars and exhibit hall Monday and Tuesday, March 13-14.
The conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Albuquerque.
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