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The Florida Home Builders Association (FHBA) and the Florida Green
Building Coalition (FGBC) recently announced a newly created partnership
designed to promote affordable green building.
“The mission of the partnership is to provide a statewide green building
program that creates both environmental and economic benefits,” said Roy
O. Bonnell Jr., executive director of FGBC, an independent nonprofit organization
established in 2000 to promote green building in the state of Florida. “We
have accomplished this by creating a broad-based coalition of members including
all sectors of the building industry, and individuals interested in the environment,
academics and government.”
While both organizations are committed to promoting affordable green building
and advocating the use of the FGBC Green Building Standards, the partnership
will allow FHBA—a trade association representing more than 19,700 corporate
members involved in Florida’s home-building and remodeling industry—and
FGBC
to:
•
Unify Florida’s green building standards by advocating the FGBC Green Home
Designation Standard and Green Development Designation Standard as the “green
standards” for builders to follow
•
Advocate incentives for builders and developers whose projects are certified
under FGBC Standards
•
Develop resources to educate and encourage the public to consider green
building
“FHBA’s strong emphasis on continuing education will allow us to
ensure our builder and developer members are aware of the standards and benefits
of greening their new home construction projects,” said Bob Sisum,
FHBA’s Green Building Sub-Committee chairman, and a Bradenton, Fla., home
builder. “The partnership is a great opportunity for us to expand on our
green building efforts throughout Florida.”
Since 2001, FGBC has created four green building standards for: Green Homes,
Green Development, Green Commercial Building and Green Local Governments. Under
development are three new standards:
Green Multi-Story High Rise Residential,
Green System Built/Modular Homes and Green Interior/Universal Design. The FGBC
is the leading green building organization in the state, with around 300 business,
nonprofit, government-agency and individual-building professional members. |
