House earned LEED-Platinum, NAHB-Gold, and Austin Energy Green Building 5-Star Certification, plus Energy Star qualification.

Designing and constructing a house to garner top-level certification in four different green building programs might sound like a nightmare of paperwork, red tape, and regulations, but it was all in a day’s work for this Austin home’s verifier.

For this contemporary house in the close-in, mixed-use Mueller community, verifier Chip Henderson compiled a simple three-page spreadsheet that included the mandatory requirements of each program.

“We took a look at the four programs and folded them into one to-do list,” recalls Henderson, of San Antonio-based Contects Consultants and Architects. “We realized that if we stuck to this one to-do list, at the end of the day we’d cross the finish line with all four of the programs.”

Henderson’s organizational skills paid off: The 3,266-square-foot home obtained top ratings by the three most widely accepted green building programs in Austin: LEED-Platinum, NAHB Model Green Home Building Gold, and Austin Energy Green Building 5-Star. The house is also Energy Star-qualified.

Read the entire article here: http://www.ecohomemagazine.com/news/2009/08/case-study-austin-home-achieves-top-ratings-in-three-green-building-programs.aspx