Maryland Development Becomes 2,000th NAHB Research Center Green Certified Project
Upper Marlboro, MD – February 22, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Murphy’s Run, a 42-site residential development in Cecil County, Md., is the 2,000th project nationwide to be certified by the NAHB Research Center to the exacting resource conservation requirements of the National Green Building Standard. It is the 12th green development certified by the Research Center in its National Green Building Certification Program. In total, this milestone certification now represents more than 3,200 individual residential units and developments for the national program.
Barry Andrews Homes, LLC, based in Port Deposit, Md., developed Murphy’s Run and the company is not satisfied with having only the land Green Certified. Andrews plans to take advantage of the flexibility of the National Green Building Standard to have every home in the community certified to the Silver level of the Standard as well.
“What’s particularly exciting about this community,” according to Michael Luzier, president of the NAHB Research Center, “is that by having both the land and the homes on it Green Certified, the builder is not just positively affecting the quality of life for his future homeowners, but he’s also directly helping to protect the national treasure of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay with his holistic consideration of environmental impacts – literally from the ground up.”
The Murphy’s Run project includes more than 60 acres of open space as well as a nature path for leisure walks and bird watching. The community is adjacent an organic farm and is just down the road from a working dairy farm.
According to accredited green verifier Tim Ellis of T.W. Ellis, LLC, who verified the development and has completed rough verifications on three homes in the community, the developer went well beyond the reforestation required for certification, and the result is a community that is surrounded by trees. “Families that purchase homes on these lots will be giving their children the ultimate playground – the woods,” said Ellis, whose firm is based in Bel Air, Md.
The NAHB Research Center’s National Green Building Certification program is based on the ICC 700-2008 National Green Building Standard™. The Standard establishes design and construction practices for nearly every type of residential construction project, including:
- New single-family homes – Includes detached single-family homes, townhomes, duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes
- New multi-unit residential buildings
- The residential portion of mixed-use buildings
- Additions to single-family homes that equal less than 75% of existing square footage
- Renovations of single-family or multi-unit buildings
- Renovations plus additions to single-family homes
- Renovations of pre-1980 residential buildings
- Renovations that change the use of non-residential buildings into residential uses
- Individual sections or phases of residential or mixed-use developments
Green certified homes incorporate green practices in six categories: Lot and site development;
resource efficiency; energy efficiency; water efficiency; indoor environmental quality; and home owner education. The focus for green certified development projects is on preservation of topography and natural resources, storm water management, greater density, and proximity to mass transit.
More information about the National Green Building Standard and the Research Center’s national certification program can be found at www.NAHBGreen.org. Builders, remodelers, or developers who want to see how a project might fare when scored to the National Green Building Standard, can use the online green scoring tool available at www.NAHBGreen.org/ScoringTool.
About NAHB Research Center
The NAHB Research Center, located in Upper Marlboro, Md., promotes innovation in housing technology to improve the quality, durability, affordability, and environmental performance of homes and home building products. Created nearly 50 years ago as a subsidiary of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the NAHB Research Center has established itself as the leading source for reliable, objective information and research on housing construction and development issues. Through its various testing and certification services, the Research Center seal is internationally-recognized as a mark of product quality and an assurance of product performance.
