EarthCraft House

http://www.earthcrafthouse.com/

EarthCraft House is a green building program that serves as a blueprint for healthy comfortable homes that reduce utility bills and protect the environment. The aim of the program is to help home builders be leaders in smart growth management and environmental stewardship.

Building an EarthCraft House is about constructing a healthy, more valuable home while minimizing environmental impacts. EarthCraft House follows a systems approach to home building that stresses an understanding of how the different components of a home work together. This approach results in a home that performs better, is more economical for the homeowner and costs little more to build than a comparable home built with standard construction practices.

EarthCraft House allows builders great flexibility in achieving environmental performance. To achieve EarthCraft House certification, homes must meet ENERGY STAR certification criteria, including achieving passing scores from diagnostic tests for air infiltration and duct leakage.

In addition, each house must achieve a minimum of 150 points from a scoring sheet. Select and Premium status are awarded to homes that meet additional criteria and achieve 200 and 230 points, respectively. All EarthCraft certified homes will also be awarded ENERGY STAR certification.

EarthCraft House guidelines include the following categories:

Site Planning

                Energy Efficient Building Envelope and Systems

                Resource Efficient Design

                Resource Efficient Building Materials

                Waste Management

                Indoor Air Quality

                Water Conservation (Indoor and Outdoor)

                Homeowner Education

                Builder Operations

                Bonus/Innovation Points