The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has been actively promoting sustainability and environmental stewardship through its committees for years, and has recently formed the Climate Risk and Sustainability Committee. The committee's main goal is to help builders prepare for and mitigate the effects of climate risk.

According to the NAHB's report, one of the biggest challenges that builders face is affordability. "We already have a crisis with affordable housing in this country. All of the ideas and mandates will add, possibly significantly, to the cost of housing. It will price some people out of owning a house someday," says Chuck Ellison, chair of the Climate Risk and Sustainability Committee.

 

Additionally, with the majority of housing already built, the committee will focus on helping people safeguard their homes against the future cost of energy and the effects of extreme weather conditions, such as heat, drought, wind, and flooding.

Ellison notes that resiliency and sustainability are closely related concepts, "While resiliency is often attributed to hardening for more extreme climate conditions, it is just an expansion of sustainability as a principle or a decision-making mindset."

The committee's main goal is to encourage the spending of allocated climate funds in a wise manner that will result in significant and tangible results. The built environment needs more attention, and the largest gains in the industry can be made in existing homes.

https://www.nahb.org/blog/2023/04/earth-day