Green House LEED Certification
Porter Hills will be the first in the country to receive LEED certification for its Green House homes. LEED certification is a recognition that a construction project or building can attain by utilizing environmentally friendly building practices during construction or remodeling. LEED is the acronym that stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is the Green Building Rating System developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. The model was developed in 1998 to encourage environmental awareness amongst government agencies, architects, engineers, developers, and builders. The Green Building Council issues LEED certification upon satisfactory application, review and compliance verification.

Sustainable Sites
In an effort to build a home that will last and have minimal adverse effects on its surroundings, Porter Hills chose to provide a high ratio of open space to the development footprint to promote biodiversity. Careful thought and planning went into limiting the disruption of natural hydrology and eliminating water pollution by reducing impervious cover such as asphalt, and increasing on-site infiltration, eliminating sources of contamination and managing the storm water runoff.

Water Efficiency
This limits the homes and yards use of potable water resources available to property for irrigation and building sewage conveyance by using an efficient irrigation system specially designed for the home, as well as integrating native plantings and water fixtures that in combination use 50% less water per use.

Energy & Atmosphere
These homes are designed to achieve a level of energy performance that will use 14% less energy than one designed without LEED standards. To decrease both the environmental and economic impact caused by excessive energy use, the electrical and mechanical systems will operate to design standards. In particular, energy use for heating and cooling will be reduced 50% through the Geothermal Heat Pump System with a Ground Loop Heat Exchanger (GLHE), the most energy-efficient system available.

Materials & Resources
In the planning phase, attainable goals were set to ensure that recycling and local resources would be utilized as much as possible. The design utilized building materials that in total would have at least 20% recycled content and 10% would be manufactured within 500 miles of the homes. Also, a goal was set to divert 75% or more construction debris from disposal in landfills and incinerators, redirect recyclable materials back to the manufacturing process, and redirect reusable materials to the appropriate sites.

Indoor Environmental Quality
From the beginning of construction, strict regulations were set in place to ensure a reduction in indoor air quality problems. Some of the products that were regulated for the gases that they emit were: adhesives, sealants, paints, stains, carpets, and wood products. After construction, the Commissioning Agent conducted air tests to ensure air quality had been maintained and the buildings are free from harmful odors. In addition, the homes and grounds will be smoke-free and utilize environmentally friendly cleaning products and practices to further ensure a healthy living environment.