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Choose a Green Certified Practitioner!
Green Advantage® Certified practitioners have demonstrated their knowledge about healthy, high performance buildings. Click Here to locate and hire a Green Advantage® certified practitioner.
Why use a Green Advantage® Certified building practitioner?
Knowledge and value.
A commercial or residential building project can be the largest single purchase a company or an individual makes in a lifetime.
There are many decisions to make about site location, materials, durability, health impacts, safety and cost. These decisions will bear directly on the satisfaction of the users and occupants when your building project is done, as well as its energy and water efficiency, environmental effects, long-term performance, disaster resistance, aesthetics, and more over the life of the building.
All factor into its market value in the future.
You may be wondering, "These sound like great things to consider for my building project, but what builders have demonstrated knowledge in these important areas?"
That's where Green Advantage® can be of help. Green Advantage® Certified building practitioners have demonstrated their knowledge in green building. These individuals have become certified in order to better serve you in your quest for an environmentally-friendly building. It's not only "the right thing to do," but it can also pay you many dividends as you select a qualified builder who can assist you in constructing a building designed to have lower utility bills, increased comfort and better durability.
Green Advantage® building practitioners have proven knowledge about green building techniques and approaches that use:
- Overview of the green building industry/green building materials
- Energy- and water-efficient building technologies
- Sustainable construction technologies that enhance disaster resistance and resistance to termites and other biological hazards
- Healthy construction methods that improve air quality and the health of building occupants
- Land planning, land development, and land management practices that protect wildlife habitats, soil and water, and foster biodiversity
About Green Advantage®
Welcome to Green Advantage® - the green building Environmental Certification program that brings consumers together with certified building practitioners who have proven knowledge about green building techniques and approaches.
Mission: To deliver Certification programs for building-related practitioners - primarily contractors, subcontractors and trades people.
Established with grant funding from the United States Environmental Protection Agency and, The Nature Conservancy, Green Advantage® was developed in collaboration with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), and the University of Florida.
Green Advantage® goals are:
- Elevating standards of practitioners and organizations with regard to energy efficiency and sustainable design
- Enhancing capabilities of practitioners and organizations to deliver energy efficient, sustainable building design and development technologies and applications to consumers
- Consumer protection through increased public awareness, knowledge and access to information about design and building practitioners' level of proficiency with regard to energy efficiency and sustainable building materials and technologies
- Demonstrating that Certification is a market advantage in attracting customers Enabling public and private sector officials to use Certification as a prerequisite or screening device during the contract bidding process
The EcoVillage Institute, Inc. (now Green Advantage, Inc.) was selected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through a competitive grant process to develop and deliver a training and Certification program for building-related professionals. Green Advantage was officially launched in 2001 in Florida. Over 2000 individuals throughout the United States are Green Advantage Certified.
