NAHB’s Voluntary Model Green Home Building GuidelinesWritten by Neda Dabestani-Ryba
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Occupancy Comfort and Indoor Environmental Quality – Details in this part of guidelines will indicate how to effectively manage moisture, ventilation, and other issues in order to create a comfortable indoor living environment. Homeowner Education - Given level of effort a homebuilder goes through to create a well thought out home system, it would be a shame not to give homeowner some guidance on how to optimally operate and maintain house. Line items from this section show a builder how best to educate homeowners on a variety of homeownership matters. Each section contains a set of provisions that explain how a builder can incorporate green building concepts into a project. In addition, local builders and green building program developers may apply points to provisions to further define green building through a scoring methodology currently being developed. Local homebuilder associations will be given a user guide that will provide additional information and guidance on ways to customize guidelines to accommodate local conditions. The draft presented at Fall Board in Columbus, OH was a piloting version for dissemination amongst HBAs and builders for accuracy and practicality. A number of HBAs and High Production Builders have expressed an interest in helping NAHB to pilot test document. The deadline for pilot testing was December 1st and final version will be rolled out during 2005 IBS in January in Orlando, FL. Currently, NAHB staff from Energy and Green Building Dept. are traveling throughout country presenting guidelines to builders and HBAs who have expressed an interest in implementing green building in their respective businesses/communities. To date over 20 HBAs have voiced their interest and support, with many more to follow in new year. In summary, voluntary Model Green Home Building Guidelines are for mainstream home builders, many of whom are already incorporating some green building methods and materials into their construction practices. These voluntary guidelines will help systematize green design and construction process and assist builder toward incorporating more green building features into homes. As NAHB Research Center data indicates that there is a growing number of green homes built annually, it is expected that these voluntary guidelines will help builders meet needs of this growing market.
Neda Dabestani-Ryba is a licensed Realtor in Maryland. She is a member of the President's Circle of Top Real Estate Professionals. She can be reached at (800) 536-3806 or visit her website for more information: http://neda.dabestani.pcragent.com/ Prudential Carruthers REALTORS is an independently owned and operated member of Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., a Prudential Financial company. Equal Housing Opportunity.
| | Why is Market Research important?Written by Martin Day
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Market research helps you identify opportunities – If you are planning to operate a new service and want to know preconceived attitudes people have then market research can help, not only in evaluating potential for a new idea, but also by identify areas where a marketing message needs to honed. Market research will minimise risk - Market research can help shape a new product or service, identifying what is needed and ensure that development of a product is highly focused towards demand. Market research creates benchmarks and helps you measure your progress - Unless you measure you may not be able to gauge how well your business is performing. Early research may highlight glaring holes in your service or short falls in your product, regular market research will show if improvements are being made and, if positive, will help motivate a team.
Martin Day is a Director of Survey Galaxy Ltd a web site that allows anyone to create, design and publish online surveys. For more information please visit http://www.surveygalaxy.com
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