EEBA's High Performance Home Newsletter

It's no surprise that builders with formal Quality Assurance programs report fewer warranty claims. For instance, Professional Builder magazine interviewed builders, National Housing Quality Awards judges and QA consultants around the U.S. for an August 2017 article and found that while most builders lack such programs, those who put who them in place get a quick return on their investment. One builder interviewed for the article reported a 70 percent reduction after just a couple of years. But while quality gains are the obvious purposes of such programs, they can offer the added benefit of lowering insurance rates. That's according to Nathan Kahre, High Performance and Healthy Home Manager at Thrive, a 250 home-per-year Denver builder. At a seminar he taught during EEBA's annual Summit in October, he said that within two years of launching its QA program, the company was rewarded with a hefty reduction in liability premiums—more than enough to pay for the program. "After... read more

The mission of the Energy and Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA) is to help industry pros design, build and sell well-crafted high-performance homes. Since great examples are great teachers, EEBA is always honored to showcase the best work of high- performance builders and designers. For the first time ever, this year's annual Summit, held in October in San Diego, hosted three prestigious awards programs. The U.S. Department of Energy's Housing Innovation Awards and the Environmental Protection Agency's Indoor airPLUS Leader Awards recognized accomplishments of industry leaders. The Department of Energy's annual “Race to Zero” competition showcased the best designs created by student design teams from around the U.S. DOE Housing Innovation Awards The Department of Energy's Housing Innovation Awards honors forward-thinking builders who take innovative approaches to zero energy ready homes. This year's awards paid tribute to “Grand Winners for Innovation” in six... read more