Green Building > Certification Regulations > Residential and Commercial Certification Programs

Residential and Commercial Certification Programs

Built Green® Washington
Built Green Washington is a cooperative of Washington's green home building programs usually operated through local builders associations. Each local program develops its own logo and checklists for new residential (single and multi-family) construction and remodeling. Built Green homes are rated between 1 and 5 stars. The higher the level, the more green strategies were used.

Earth Advantage®
Earth Advantage is an Oregon-based not-for-profit organization that developed a residential new construction, remodel, and sustainable community certification system. You can see homes rated using system in Southwest Washington and throughout Oregon.

Evergreen Sustainable Development Standard for Affordable Housing
The Evergreen Sustainable Development Standard (ESDS) was developed by the Housing Trust Fund (HTF) at the Department of Commerce using outside experts and stakeholder review. ESDS is based on Green Communities^TM which was created by Enterprise Community Partners, a national non-profit, to support the development of green affordable housing. The Evergreen Standard sets a minimum level of sustainable performance for HTF projects designed to meet the requirements of RCW 39.35D.080

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®)
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System emerged from work by the U.S. Green Building Council, a non-profit organization. LEED is a third-party certification program and offers checklists and performance standards for commercial construction, existing buildings, residential construction, and neighborhood development.

Living Building Challenge
The Living Building Challenge was first introduced in 2006 by the Cascadia Region Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. It challenges builders, designers, and architects to produce the greenest homes, and shares best practices and leading industry knowledge while working to achieve true sustainability in the built environment. Unlike other certifications, all requirements on the Living Building Challenge checklist are mandatory.

National Green Building Standard
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approved ICC-700-2008 National Green Building Standard was developed by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the International Code Council (ICC). This standard has checklists for single and multifamily homes, residential remodeling projects, and site development projects.

The Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol
The Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol is a tool that allows designers to plan a high-performance school while considering the regional, district, and site-specific possibilities and constraints for each project.