February 2014
| Business World Magazine | 81
enhancing education and training of future
builders and increasing the body of knowl-
edge on housing issues).
In terms of issues and trends within the in-
dustry, green building practices have elicited
significant emphasis from the NAHB. More
than six years ago, theNAHB partneredwith
the International Code Council to create the
first nationally-recognizable standard defini-
tion of green building, a process that result-
ed in the ICC 700 National Green Build-
ing Standard, the first (and only) residential
green building rating system to undergo the
full consensus process and achieve approval
from the American National Standards In-
stitute. Originally published in 2009, the
system was reviewed and updated last year.
The 2012 National Green Building Standard
ultimately raised the bar on energy efficiency
requirements, revolutionized the manner in
which renovations and remodeling projects
are treated through the standard, incentiv-
ized aspects in development and lot design,
and effected changes that principals believe
make the standard now easier to understand
and implement. These enhancements will
reportedly better enable the standard’s in-
creased penetration throughout the indus-
try.
To that point, NAHB’s Senior Program
