California Green Building Standards The California Green Building Standards outline acceptable construction techniques in Commercial and Residential new construction. Visit Cal Green Code to learn more about CAL Green and how it can help your home be more healthy and save you money.  Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Verification The HERS Index is the nationally recognized scoring system for measuring a home’s energy performance. Visit HERS Energy Program to test your home's energy efficiency. THIRD PARTY RATING SYSTEMS Green Building Certification Inc. (GBCI)  Rating Systems:  GBCI is the premier global organization for independently recognizing excellence in sustainability performance and practice. With regional offices in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, India and China, GBCI is accelerating the adoption of green business practices through an array of certification and professional credentialing programs. This is an excellent article that summarizes all of GBCI's various rating systems.  GBCI: LEED Certification LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the most widely used green building rating system in the world. Available for virtually all building, community and home project types, LEED provides a framework to create healthy, highly efficient and cost-saving green buildings. LEED certification is a globally recognized symbol of sustainability achievement. Go here to delve into all the various LEED Rating systems.  GBCI: TRUE Rating System TRUE is a whole systems approach aimed at changing how materials flow through society, resulting in no waste. TRUE encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused. TRUE promotes processes that consider the entire lifecycle of products used within a facility. With TRUE, your facility can demonstrate to the world what you’re doing to minimize your waste output. GBCI: Parksmart Rating System Parksmart defines and recognizes sustainable practices in parking structure management, programming, design and technology. Industry-driven and field tested, Parksmart distinguishes the forward-thinking parking facilities shaping tomorrow’s sustainable mobility network. GBCI: PEER Rating System PEER is the first ever rating system that drives market transformation in the power and energy sectors. The program translates the goals of resiliency, sustainable power delivery and environmental impact reduction into a third-party, metrics-based certification program. GBCI: GRESB Rating System GRESB assesses the sustainability performance of real estate and infrastructure portfolios and assets worldwide. We offer ESG data, Scorecards, Benchmark Reports and portfolio analysis tools. GBCI: WELL Building Institute WELL is the leading tool for advancing health and well-being in buildings globally. Register your office, building or other space to leverage WELL’s flexible framework for improving health and human experience through design. GBCI: SITES Rating System SITES is used by landscape architects, designers, engineers, architects, developers, policy-makers and others to align land development and management with innovative sustainable design. GreenPoint Rated Verification GreenPoint Rated is a green building rating system that has over 150 measures in categories covering every part of your home's construction. Mandated by the San Luis Obispo Green Building Ordinance if a newly constructed single family home is larger than 2,500 square feet. Visit Green Point Rated for more information on verifying your next home. Living Building Challenge The Living Building Challenge is the world’s most rigorous proven performance standard for buildings. People from around the world use our regenerative design framework to create spaces that, like a flower, give more than they take.

TOOLS GBCI: EDGE Software An innovation of IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, EDGE is a fast and easy to use mass market transformation tool. It empowers developers and builders to quickly identify the most cost effective ways to reduce energy use, water use and embodied energy in materials.  ARC Platform Arc is for LEED certified buildings and for projects that are not yet certified but looking to improve sustainability and human health, and take steps toward earning LEED certification. Ultimately, Arc will eliminate complexities and barriers that will enable you to make smarter decisions. Arc calculates a performance score out of 100, based on a global data set and action-oriented strategies across five categories of:  Energy, Water, Waste, Transportation, & Human Experience