The ANSI consensus process ensures that standards developed under its purview are regularly reviewed and changed/updated as appropriate to keep pace with industry and technology innovations and best practices. As an ANSI standard, that National Green Building Standard (NGBS) has undergone several updates since it was first introduced a decade ago - development of the 2020 NGBS is well underway and nearing its conclusion. Home Innovation Research Labs is an adopting entity of the NGBS, and determines how to best administer our green home certification program based on the NGBS. Below is information on how we are sunsetting the 2012 version of the NGBS.
Projects located in states that have adopted the 2012 (or more recent version of the) IECC wanting to use the 2012 NGBS for certification must be registered by 5:00 p.m. Eastern, December 31, 2018, and completed by December 31, 2021. This applies to single-family homes and multifamily buildings. Otherwise projects in these states must register for the 2015 NGBS. Of course, any project can voluntarily elect to seek 2015 NGBS Green certification immediately. Projects that register to use the 2012 NGBS can change to use the 2015 NGBS without a change fee as long as the rough inspection(s) has not been started.
Projects located in states currently using pre-2012 versions of the IECC, or where the code has been significantly modified, will be allowed to register 2012 NGBS projects until midnight Eastern, December 31, 2019, and must complete construction and certification by December 31, 2022.
The complete 2012 NGBS Sunset Policy and table of states and their deadlines is located in the Verifier's Resource Guide (VRG) and within the NGBS Green Certification Resources. Home Innovation encourages builders, developers, and verifiers to use the NGBS version that results in an above-code project based on the local building code. As always, contact us if you have a question about what NGBS version to use for a specific project.
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