Historically, important information on a home such as energy ratings, third-party building certifications or renewable power production estimates (solar panels) has not made it into for-sale listings. Thousands of dollars of value could be lost because trustworthy data was not available for a listing agent and potential buyers to react to at the time of sale. That lack of data has also prevented appraisers and lending institutions from accounting for those market reactions.
Since 2017, GBR has provided green home data to the public and real estate multiple listing services. The DaaS (Data as a Service) platform provides verified data directly from sources such as U.S. Department of Energy, Home Energy Scores, LEED® for Homes, National Green Building Services (NGBS), solar data, and other regional third-party verification programs throughout the country. Nationwide values for the HERS Index, a scoring system for home energy performance administered by RESNET, will now be included in GBR for the entire United States.
Steve Baden, executive director of RESNET, stated, "A RESNET HERS Rating provides an invaluable tool for builders, consumers, real estate agents and appraisers in unlocking the value of energy-efficient homes. RESNET has been working with MLS systems across the nation to incorporate HERS Index Scores into their listings. Our collaboration with Earth Advantage will boost this effort by providing the GBR with the largest dataset of energy-efficient homes in the country."
David Heslam, executive director at Earth Advantage, stated, "Data drives the modern economy. That's especially true for the real estate industry which provides the data for millions of home sales and mortgages every year. The HERS Index is in use across the country, especially on efficient new homes. Adding more than one million HER Index scores to the Green Building Registry will make that data easily available to MLS systems, agents, appraisers, and lenders."
About GBR
The Green Building Registry (GBR) was built and is maintained by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Earth Advantage, Inc. GBR is a single-source solution for the public and real estate industry to facilitate auto population of verified green data into listings throughout the United States. Earth Advantage's mission is to accelerate the adoption of high-performance and sustainable, residential building practices. We focus on two key pathways for success: maintaining well-above-code standards for our own certifications and providing information to the public in the form of third-party data and professional training. Visit the GBR public website at us.greenbuildingregistry.com to learn more. For more information on Earth Advantage, visit earthadvantage.org.
About RESNET
The Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) is the independent, national nonprofit organization that homeowners trust to improve home energy efficiency and realize substantial savings on their utility bills. RESNET's industry-leading standards are recognized by the housing industry, federal, state and local government agencies, among others. To date, over three million homes have been energy-rated and issued HERS Index Scores in the U.S. For more information, visit www.resnet.us.