Nov 10 2008
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has announced that applications are now being accepted for the 2009 NAHB National Green Building Awards.
The prestigious annual awards honor home builders, remodelers, home builders' associations and other organizations for advancing green building through innovative design and construction techniques, excellent educational programs and successful advocacy efforts.
The awards are presented at a gala dinner during the NAHB National Green Building Conference. The 11th annual conference is set for May 8-10 in Dallas.
The awards are part of the NAHB National Green Building Program, NAHBGreen, which includes education, advocacy, marketing and certification services for green homes. Since NAHBGreen debuted in February 2008, homes have been certified in 20 states.
"Between 2006 and 2008, the number of award applications quadrupled. The tremendous growth of this program reflects the growth of green building practices all over the country," said NAHB Green Building Subcommittee Chair Ray Tonjes, a home builder in Austin, Texas.
Organizers have made a number of improvements to this year's entry process to make it even easier to apply. To conserve paper, all applications must be submitted by mail on a compact disk. No binders or other application packets will be accepted. The entry deadline is Jan. 31, 2008.
NAHB has also introduced the Advocate of the Year -- State and Local Government Award to honor individuals or teams that promote green initiatives and go the extra mile to advance sustainable building and development strategies in their communities. Applications for this award must be submitted by the home builders' association in that jurisdiction.
Building and remodeling projects must have been started after June 2007 and substantially completed by December 2008 to be considered for an award.
Project entries can be scored to the green certification program of the applicant's choice, but must also be scored to the NAHB Model Green Home Building Guidelines -- the rating system for NAHBGreen -- to facilitate judging. NAHBGreen's online scoring tool will generate checklists that can easily be saved to the submission disk. The rating system can also be downloaded at www.nahbgreen.org.
Tonjes himself was honored at the 2008 NAHB National Green Building Awards in New Orleans with the Lifetime Advocacy Award. Tonjes, a longtime subcommittee chair, speaks frequently on NAHB's green building efforts.
Information on the awards process, including the mailing address and downloadable entry forms, are available at www.nahb.org/greenbuildingawards.