Increasingly, Austin home listings contain “green” marketing as shown in the graph below. This article, part II of IV, looks at the certification programs and demystifies what it means when a builder claims a home is “four star green”.
Green homes graph
The graph on the right summarizes MLS data for Central and East Austin in the last few years. The word “green” is no longer just used to describe the color of the walls, but now is an overloaded word. With different organizations giving green brownie points, it’s important to know which scheme is which.

The U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System is a national standard for creating sustainable buildings.

LEED NC (New Construction) has a rating system and tests five major design and build categories:Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials and Resources and Indoor Environmental Quality. There are pre-requisites for some categories, for example collection and storage of recyclable materials is required in the building process as part of the Materials and Resources category. Points for different items in each category are added to give a rating: Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum.

The Austin Energy Green Building Program (GBP) is a locally-based program that assists the design and construction sectors in creating sustainable buildings. The program has some mandatory requirements such as no vapor barriers, at least two ceiling fans, low VOC paints on interior walls, and the home must meet the following codes: Meet the following building codes: International Residential Code 2000, International Energy Conservation Code 2000. Voluntary measures that are met are awarded points which add up to give One Star up to Five Star ratings.

If that doesn’t satiate your thirst for ratings, there’s also the ENERGY STAR® program, which applies not only to appliances, but to new homes too. The ENERGY STAR® label on a new home means that it is independently verified to be at least 15% more efficient than homes built to the 2003 International Energy Conservation Code. Over and above the energy efficiency standard, there’s also an ENERGY STAR® Indoor Air Package which includes measures to protect air quality in a home.

So as an example, single family homes in Mueller, Austin are all subject to a minimum LEED NC Certified status, and single family homes have to achieve a minimum three Star rating from the Austin Energy GBP. As another example a Muskin Home in the Garden Court at Mueller says that it is “4 Star Energy Rated” in the MLS Listing, which translates as Four Stars from the Austin Energy Green Building Program.

Garreth Wilcock is a real estate consultant at Keller Williams. He specializes in Central and East Austin Real Estate. Call 512 694 8873 or contact him at his website if you want a free valuation of your Austin home. You can also search the Austin MLS at his website.