Climate Change and Sustainability

NAHB supports a common sense, scientific approach to safeguarding the environment that reasonably balances protection of endangered species, clean air and clean water, with the need to allow local communities to grow and thrive.

Inflation Reduction Act

• The recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act creates and/or refines a number of clean building and clean energy efforts that are designed to influence how new homes and communities are designed and built.
• Equally important, it includes several incentives intended to compel consumers to upgrade their existing homes to improve their energy efficiency and resilience to climate-related impacts.
• Specific programs impacting the single-family construction and remodeling industry include:
  • Advancing Energy Codes that include grants to state and local governments to adopt energy codes that meet or exceed the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).
  • Clean Building Incentives. Consumer home energy rebates and tax credits for improving overall energy efficiency, appliance upgrades, and/or non-appliance upgrades.
  • Energy-Efficient Tax Credits for building homes that meet certain energy-efficient requirements, along with other housing tax credits.
• NAHB has conducted two webinars on this new law to help our members learn more about how it could potentially affect their businesses – one dealing with its energy tax incentives and another that provides a broad overview of the Inflation Reduction Act.
• These webinars, along with a one-page fact sheet on the Inflation Reduction Act, can be found at nahb.org.

Wildfire Mitigation and Wildland-Urban Interface

• We understand the need to balance our response to wildfires while addressing the ongoing housing affordability crisis.
• A comprehensive federal, state and local approach is needed to reduce wildfire risk including proper forest management techniques, adequate community water supplies, and avoiding fires due to utility infrastructure, camping, and other activities.
• There are strategies builders, remodelers and home owners can employ to minimize the potential impact of wildfires.
• For example, maintaining a defensible space around the home can reduce the chance that flying embers will ignite vegetation, firewood or other flammable materials close to the home, or elements of the home itself.
• Ignition-resistant roofing and siding materials such as asphalt shingles, concrete and clay tile, metal roofing, fiber-cement siding and stucco can be used to reduce the risk of damage to homes from wildfires.
• Ridge, gable, eave and foundation vents can be protected with products that minimize the ability for embers to get inside the home.

Forest Management

• We can protect our forests while further meeting the nation’s need for lumber by encouraging increased logging on federal forest lands sustainably.
• And with lumber price volatility at record levels over the past year, the administration needs to suspend duties on Canadian lumber and negotiate a new softwood lumber agreement with Canada that will ensure a lasting and stable supply of lumber for American home builders and consumers at a competitive price.
• NAHB supports Rep. Bruce Westerman’s (R-Ark.) “No Timber from Tyrants Act.” The legislation calls for responsibly increasing domestic lumber production from federal lands to address the resiliency of our national forests, create jobs, reinvigorate the forest industry and improve housing affordability.
• The Federation is committed to working with stakeholders to promote forest management best practices and the use of sound science to ensure that the health of the national forests improves and that the forests continue to be available for use as renewable resources.
• NAHB will continue to coordinate with the various federal agencies charged with managing and overseeing the national forests to develop and maintain adequate timber sale volumes to meet domestic housing demands and sustainable yield goals.

Electrification

• NAHB supports incentive-based, voluntary electrification, and opposes unnecessary and costly mandates, including electrification-only mandates.
• NAHB only supports the voluntary electrification of residential buildings if the entity considering the electrification policy:
  • Preserves consumer choice and considers consumer acceptance of an all-electric home;
  • Ensures that the existing housing stock is addressed; and
  • Develops economic incentives to offset the costs of electrifying buildings through methods such as rebates, tax incentives, favorable mortgage financing terms, utility rate structure, etc.
• The Home Innovation Research Labs recently released a new study on the impact of electrification on an average-size single-family home. Based on study findings, all-electric homes cost more upfront in comparison to gas homes. Electric homes in cold climates were also found to have higher ongoing utility costs.
• Jurisdictions considering electrification should evaluate these impacts on consumers and work with stakeholders to develop supporting economic measures.

Electric Vehicles

• NAHB only supports the voluntary and cost-effective expansion of electric vehicle (EV) use and the voluntary pre-wiring of homes for future EV charger installation.
• NAHB urges Congress and the Administration to take a comprehensive approach to encourage the expansion of EV infrastructure by considering the potential effects of various EV policies on local economies and all housing types.
• We support a federal framework that recognizes local decision-making regarding the installation and maintenance of EV infrastructure.
• We urge state and local governments to encourage/incentivize the installation of community-based EV infrastructure by providing offsets, density bonuses, and other credits to builders and developers for providing EV infrastructure.

Building Sustainable Communities

• NAHB supports voluntary above-code sustainable, green, high-performance new home construction and remodeling.
• NAHB actively raises awareness and advocates for viable, credible, market-driven and voluntary green building initiatives at the federal level in both the legislative and regulatory arenas.
• NAHB also provides research, resources and tools for its members to effectively build sustainable homes and communities and distinguish themselves in their markets on nahb.org, via professional education and through webinar offerings.
• Voluntary, above-code third-party green certification programs such as the ICC 700 - National Green Building Standard® (NGBS) provide builders and consumers with the flexibility to construct homes that are sustainable, high performing, affordable, cost-effective and appropriate to the home’s geographic location.
• NAHB supports the use of products and techniques that result in reasonable paybacks in energy, insurance premiums, or other savings to the consumer.
• NAHB also advocates for and educates stakeholders to ensure property listings, lending practices and appraisals recognize and factor in the value of resource efficiency and other sustainable and resilient elements.
• Sustainability and high-performance building are important to the home building industry, consumers and the nation because it promotes lower total ownership costs through utility savings and increased durability as well as an improved indoor living environment.