Southern Energy Management (SEM) has been named an inaugural NAHB Research Center Green Partner of the Year for 2011. Being one of only a handful of the Research Center’s green certification participants to be honored with this award reinforces the commitment SEM has made to providing builders with sound education and strategic guidance toward achieving certification to the National Green Building Standard (NGBS) ICC-700.
“This is the first year since the Research Center began offering certification services to the Standard that we have presented awards to our program partners,” Research Center President Michael Luzier said. “After administering the program for three years, we felt compelled to recognize the significant commitment to green certification, innovation in building science, and leadership in the residential construction industry that our partners have displayed. We are awed by what companies like SEM are achieving in the field and the market transformation they are accomplishing through a voluntary, market-driven program.”
Southern Energy Management is the number one verifier in the United States, accounting for 23 percent of NGBS homes nationwide, based on statistics released in 2011. Its NAHB Research Center-accredited staff performed nearly 300 field verifications in 2011 alone, handling 60 percent of all verifications completed in North Carolina.
“Our team has been focused on getting green building strategies into the mainstream, and the National Green Building Standard has been a huge part of that,” SEM Green Building Specialist Jamie Hager said. “It’s exciting when a new builder gets on board and realizes green building is quality building, and they just run with it. We are proud that many of our builder partners have become leaders in the national green building movement.”
The residential building performance team at SEM has consistently been recognized as an industry forerunner, working with builders and homeowners to promote green building practices, energy efficiency programs and home performance improvements. In 2011, SEM helped its clients prevent more than 16-million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions through its residential building performance services.
Since the NGBS became the first and only residential green building rating system to be approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in January 2009, the NAHB Research Center has certified nearly 2,600 single-family homes, over 150 multifamily buildings representing nearly 4,700 apartments, and 17 residential land developments representing close to 1,000 lots. For more information on the Standard or the Research Center’s certification program, visit www.nahbgreen.org/Certification.