KB Home, City of Palo Alto Among Award Winners for Green Building Leadership

OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The nonprofit Build It Green has announced seven GreenPoint Rated Award winners for 2013, each selected for their leadership in residential green building in California. These winners are changing the way homes are designed, built, and remodeled—all to the high standards of GreenPoint Rated, the most trusted independent home rating system in California.

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Congratulations to the winners:

• Community Builder of the Year: KB Home of Northern California
• Affordable Builder of the Year: Eden Housing
• Visionary Builder of the Year: Southern California Edison/ ABC Green Home Builders
• Custom Builder of the Year: Joe LoConte - Olivewood Builder /Green Building Specialists
• Green Building Leader in the Public Sector: City of Palo Alto
• Home Performance Contractor of the Year: Building Doctors, Inc.
• GreenPoint Rater of the Year: DuctTesters, Inc.

For details on each winner, visit: http://www.builditgreen.org/en/art/974/

"We're proud to recognize these innovative and forward-thinking organizations for playing a key role to mainstream green building practices," said Catherine Merschel, Build It Green Executive Director. "These professionals are showing that greener buildings aren't just good for the environment—they provide a strong economic opportunity."

The winners were announced at a ceremony Wednesday evening. Each year, the GreenPoint Rated Awards recognize the leading building professionals and organizations whose on-the-ground efforts are helping to transform the market for green homes—by building and remodeling homes to GreenPoint Rated standards for energy efficiency, water efficiency, indoor air quality, resource conservation, and community features.

Building by building, these professionals are moving the state of California closer to its aggressive climate and energy goals, which include reducing GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and building all new homes to net zero energy standards by 2020.

Building certified green homes is a key strategy to meet these goals. GreenPoint Rated is the most trusted independent green home certification program in California, providing proof that a home is healthy, comfortable, durable, and resource efficient. More than 21,000 homes have been rated through the program, administered by Build It Green. These homes have collectively saved more than 58 million kWh of electricity, 259 million gallons of water, and 103,000 metric tons of carbon emissions.

Winners of the GreenPoint Rated Awards were selected by Build It Green based on the volume of GreenPoint Rated projects, GPR home scores, improvements in scores over time, and ability to message the benefits of green building.

"The GreenPoint Rated Awards honor the key actors in our industry," said Amy Dryden, GreenPoint Rated Technical Manager. "The success of green building requires commitment from builders, progressive policies from local governments, contractors with the technical expertise to perform the work, and raters to verify that the work was performed correctly for maximum benefits and resource savings."

Media Contact:
Don Knapp, Marketing Manager
Build It Green
(510) 590-3360, Ext. 187
[email protected]

SOURCE Build It Green