Your Quick Reference Guide to Stego's NGBS Green Certified Solutions 
In today’s residential construction landscape, the push toward sustainability is more than just a trend; it’s a responsibility. As I’ve met with homebuilders and attended industry shows across the country, building homes that are more energy efficient, healthy, and durable for their clients or prospective buyers is a top point of discussion. But even more so, homebuilders are specifically taking a more environmentally conscious approach to their product decisions.
In this article, you will walk away with a strong understanding of how residential green building certifications can be crucial in this journey, offering homebuilders a roadmap to constructing verifiably better, more sustainable homes.
The Importance of Foundation Solutions in Sustainable Home Construction
When constructing a new home, every builder knows that the foundation sets the tone for the entire project. It's not just about what you see, but what you don't. Hidden threats like moisture vapor, radon gas, and subterranean termites can compromise the structural integrity and indoor air quality of a home. Advanced vapor barriers provide a critical defense, isolating homes from these unseen dangers and enhancing overall performance.
With unique and necessary features like low water vapor permeance and high strength, engineered vapor barriers are intended to provide consistent performance in this specific application. Moreover, some products come with warranties that underscore a commitment to quality, further solidifying their role in sustainable home construction.
A Quick Guide to Residential Green Building Certifications
Residential green building certification programs (or sometimes known or better categorized as standards or rating systems) exist to establish the benchmarks for more sustainable construction. They offer homebuilders, homeowners, developers, and others a way to demonstrate a level of credibility in the sustainable features of the home – including improved energy performance, human health, and carbon footprint impacts.
Homebuilders may choose to certify their homes for various reasons, including taking advantage of tax incentives, marketability, and differentiation, or simply to demonstrate their quality, value, and responsibility in a verifiable way. For homeowners, it means a level of trust their home will have with improved performance over a “standard”, code-built home. Not only may this align with the homeowners’ demands for a healthier, comfortable, and durable home, but ultimately it can have real impacts on costs of ownership and peace of mind.
Common certification programs in the residential landscape include:
- ICC 700 National Green Building Standard ® (NGBS),
- ENERGY STAR®,
- Indoor airPLUS,
- Phius (Passive Building), and
- LEED® Residential BD+C.
There are certainly similarities between these different programs in terms of scope and impact areas. While some take a more holistic approach to sustainability (e.g., NGBS), others offer more specific areas of focus. For example, ENERGY STAR aims to improve energy performance of new homes and Indoor airPLUS focuses more on indoor air quality.
To help homebuilders navigate these programs and provide any necessary third-party testing services, qualified consultants (raters, verifiers, etc.) often come into play. These are professionals trained and certified by accredited providers to offer a range of services, including evaluations and recommendations of products, home inspections and testing (e.g., HERS® Index scores), documentation support, and more toward program certification.
The Contribution of Foundation Vapor Barriers
For homebuilders targeting residential green building certification, choosing the right foundation vapor barrier solution can make a difference. Here are 6 ways vapor barriers may contribute to certification generally:
- Below-Slab and Crawl Space Water Vapor Retarder: Protects against moisture vapor diffusion from the ground, enhancing the building’s structural longevity and indoor air quality. Generally, a mandatory requirement toward certification.
- Soil-Gas Retarder for Radon Mitigation: Acts as a preventive measure against unsafe levels of radon gas in the home, a leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers.
- Physical, Non-Toxic Termite Barrier: Utilizes an Integrated Pest Management approach to deter termites without harmful chemicals.
- Material Ingredient Disclosure: Includes information establishing compliance with Health Product Declaration® Collaborative’s Open Standard, offering transparency about the composition of products and any associated health hazard risks.
- Low-VOC Emitting Materials: Helps maintain indoor air quality, contributing to healthier living environments. Especially critical in vapor barriers used as ground cover in crawl spaces.
- Brownfield Redevelopment: Can contribute to an effective vapor intrusion mitigation system that lends to new home construction on underutilized or contaminated land.
Stego Solutions are NGBS Green Certified Products
These general contributions are now playing out in real-world applications and in a verified way for residential projects that endeavor to certify to the NGBS ICC-700. Stego barrier solutions (StegoHome®, StegoCrawl ® Wrap, Pango ® Wrap, Stego ® Wrap, and Drago ® Wrap) are all now NGBS Green Certified for Resource Efficiency and Indoor Environmental Quality. This means they provide pre-approved contributions to exceeding mandatory Practice requirements, as well as Points towards advanced certification in some Practices as well.
See product listings for more information.
This means Stego barriers offer homebuilders (or raters and verifiers) streamlined approval on NGBS certified projects.
Of course, this advanced level of product certification may also offer a logical transition to make Stego the trusted choice in contributing to other program certification, such as ENERGY STAR or Indoor airPLUS qualified homes, where foundation vapor protection is a compulsory component.
The Importance of Choosing Sustainably Minded Manufacturers
In the journey towards sustainable construction, looking for product manufacturers that prioritize sustainability can also be an important consideration.
At Stego, our approach to holistic sustainability is evident in our comprehensive sustainability report, which outlines various initiatives and accomplishments:
- Material Transparency and Human Health: Stego is a Health Product Declaration® Collaborative Member and our published HPDs provide transparency that helps homebuilders make better-informed decisions.
- Industry Leadership: Stego actively participates in the development of industry standards and building codes and supports organizations helping influence the future of sustainable construction.
- Operational Impacts and Company Culture: The Stego Footprint Project highlights our efforts to reduce environmental impact as a leading building product manufacturer and build a responsible company culture.
- Circular Economy: Stego’s barrier films are designed for optimal installation, long-term performance, and recyclability (approved through the NexTrex® program), demonstrating a commitment to reducing landfill waste and promoting a circular economy.
Looking Ahead: You Can Impact the Future with Sustainable Homes
Stego barrier solutions offer homebuilders unmatched, industry-leading performance, including low vapor permeance, superior strength, consistent quality, and a first-of-its-kind Life of the Building® Warranty. With residential solutions uniquely designed for a range of foundation types, soil concerns, and new home sizes, as well as our trusted homebuilder support, Stego is well-positioned to help meet homebuilder goals and exceed homeowner’s expectations
Choosing Stego barrier solutions offers another opportunity to showcase your commitments as a responsible builder and your efforts to bring healthy, high-performance homes to your customers.
High-Performance, Healthy Homes Start from the Ground Up
Based on my experience, the homebuilding industry is currently undergoing a significant shift in mindset regarding foundation vapor protection. Previously considered a commodity piece of the foundation work, vapor barriers at the first side of homes are now being viewed as an essential building enclosure component.
Investing in advanced foundation vapor barrier solutions is essential for building sustainable homes that stand the test of time. This investment goes beyond products—it offers peace of mind. Embrace the future of building with solutions that support a better future, where every foundation is a step towards sustainable living.
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