BPC Homes Achieve
National Green Building Standard Levels

The National Green Building Standard (NGBS) is a residential green building certification program created by a consortium of home building and standards organizations. The program has standards for both single-family homes and multi-family apartment buildings. 

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) adopted the NGBS for use by its members. The NGBS is also a residential green building standard approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Six National Green Building Standard Areas of Focus

There are six primary areas which homes built to this standard must meet: The areas include:

1. Energy efficiency
2. Water efficiency
3. Lot development
4. Efficient use of resources
5. Operations and maintenance
6. Indoor environmental quality

Four NGBS Certification Levels

The NGBS is a point-based system. Depending on how many points a home earns, it can earn one of these for certification levels:

1. Bronze
2. Silver
3. Gold
4. Emerald (highest)

BPC Green Homes and the NGBS

Custom homes BPC has built homes that are certified under one or more other green home building industry standards would also meet the National Green Building Standard program certification requirements. The Taft Home BPC build is a home certified as LEED Platinum but also meets the requirements for certification under the NGBS program for its top Emerald Level category.

Taft House is Certified as a Zero Energy Ready Home, a certified Passive House, is a net-zero energy home, positive energy home and would qualify for certification as an NGBS Emerald Level home if the home was submitted for certification.

To date, one of BPC’s homes earned the highest National Green Building Standard certification possible. The NGBS Emerald level certification.

A Certified NGBS Emerald level home built by BPC.

Third-Party Verification Required for NGBS Certification

Like most established green building certification programs, the National Green Building Standard requires third-party verification for certification.

There are costs associated with third-party verification and for submitting the home for certification. For some programs the costs are relatively low. But for some, like the NGBS, the costs can run thousands of dollars. So, some homeowners, including BPC clients, opt to certify their home under only one program, even when their home meets the standards required for multiple programs.