In 2015, the GreenHome Institute (GHI) will also be continuing their work with affordable housing developers by replicating a very successful program delivered in partnership with their Chicago office and USGBC Illinois. The Wege Foundation will be supporting the GreenHome Institute’s Green Affordable Housing training with a $20,000 grant. This grant will help thirty to forty affordable housing developer stakeholders become LEED credentialed and trained on how and why to design, build, and rehab multi- and single-family buildings to the new LEED v4 standard, which is due to launch in October of 2016.
Terri McCarthy, Vice President of Programs at the Wege Foundation says, “We are very excited to continue working with the GreenHome Institute because we are very supportive of LEED in the affordable housing sector in Kent County. This program will help ensure healthier and more energy efficient affordable housing for residents who are most in need, through design and trades training, credentialing along with credible third party inspections and energy testing of these homes.”
The GreenHome Institute is thrilled to continue this partnership with a foundation who has helped them in the past to jump start the LEED for Homes provider-ship with a $36,000 grant. It is clear the foundation wants to see LEED v4 be just as successful as LEED 2008. Without support from the Wege Foundation, it would be near impossible to educate, train, and consult to help overcome the stringency of the new program.
Throughout this project, GHI will be sharing the lessons we learn with the USGBC IL chapter and their programming committee who in the past 3 years attracted nearly 70 participants with roughly 30% going on to become LEED for Homes accredited. Some have even gone forward to develop green- and LEED-registered affordable housing. We believe every USGBC chapter can create partnerships locally to expand Green Affordable Housing in their communities. We hope that what we learn during this process can help reduce the barriers to develop with LEED v4 for Homes.
We plan to start this project in early spring and complete training in the fall of 2015. Stay tuned as we progress!
