How to Build Healthy Homes

Ryan Griggs Lawrence explains some of the new health practices adopted by home builders around the United States.

Across the country, home builders large and small are working to determine whether healthy building standards are important for their buyers. Many building pros have been reluctant to offer health and wellness features because they think they will cost more, interfere with schedules and budgets, and lead to conversations with clients about things they don’t understand. But builders who have already stepped into the healthy home arena say these concerns are becoming non-issues.

Among those standards, 800 homebuilders have already adopted the EPA's voluntary Indoor airPLUS certification program. There are also already product certifications like Greenguard, Cradle to Cradle, and the International Living Future Institute’s Declare label.

The article includes tips based on the experience of early adopter home builders in how to see the health-focused modifications, which come with extra costs and can be confused by overuse of jargon. Left out of the discussion, however, is any mention of cities or communities were the building code requires these improvements for new construction or renovations.