Home Innovation Research Labs is pleased to be named by the EPA as the first Multifamily Review Organization (MRO) for high-rise, non-commercial projects seeking Energy Star certification. Under the new process, rather than submitting Energy Star project documentation to the EPA, project teams instead will work on submissions with Home Innovation as an EPA-recognized organization. Home Innovation staff will review and approve Energy Star documentation submissions by developers.
Being selected to serve in this role represents a great deal of confidence by the EPA in Home Innovation’s competency and the systems that were already in place to run the nation-leading National Green Building Standard (NGBS) certification program. Home Innovation will be able to capitalize on the infrastructure and building science expertise that has enabled the NGBS program to be delivered in a streamlined and cost-effective fashion, thus providing greater economy of scale.
Becoming an MRO also gives a significant boost to Home Innovation’s strategy of becoming a one-stop shop for green and energy certifications for residential buildings. In this new role, developers who were not previously familiar with Home Innovation or NGBS Green will now be introduced to more options as they seek Energy Star certification as part of a local mandate, for market differentiation, and/or to qualify for financing incentives. Fannie Mae and HUD, for example, both offer preferred financing for green certified properties and both NGBS and the Energy Star Multifamily High Rise (MFHR) program are among the recognized programs. Many HUD programs also require or encourage Energy Star certification as a minimum for energy efficiency in new construction.
The MRO designation also provides a new business opportunity for Home Innovation’s accredited NGBS Green Verifiers, who will now be able to submit Energy Star documentation for developer clients (this was previously limited to only professional engineers and registered architects).
This designation dovetails nicely with the new provisions for energy efficiency compliance in the 2015 NGBS. This version of the NGBS provides an alternative compliance path to Bronze and Silver certification for multifamily projects with Energy Star certification. Previous NGBS versions only recognized the Energy Star for Homes program, however, with the steady increase of multifamily buildings seeking NGBS certification, the 2015 NGBS added a compliance path for energy efficiency to recognize multifamily buildings that qualified for Energy Star MFHR.
Home Innovation will begin to offer MRO services this month. For more information, visit HomeInnovation.com/EnergyStarContact.
