The first full draft of the 2026 Green Communities Criteria is open for public comment through August 27. Please share your thoughts: https://greencommunities.konveio.com/
Every five years, Green Communities, the one-and-only green building standard created with, and for, the affordable housing sector, gets a refresh. Over the last several months, Enterprise has worked diligently to develop a draft of the 20th anniversary edition.
We convened experts across disciplines, hosting 15 hours of workshops and listening sessions with nearly 250 affordable housing thought leaders, policy experts, residents, developers, and building practitioners.
Here are some of the proposed changes you'll see:
- Streamlined options for advanced energy performance, including our popular Certification Plus program.
- New best practices to reduce the impacts of natural hazards like extreme heat, flooding, high winds, and wildfires.
- Three wayfinding themes - energy, health and resilience - to help developers surface priorities, explore solutions, and reach their goals.
We are thrilled with this draft and want to take it across the finish line with feedback from you. Please comment on the 2026 Green Communities Criteria and share this opportunity with your colleagues and networks. We recognize that we are asking a lot of your time, but believe that this iterative process will help us build criteria that best meets the needs of our industry and the climate. Your comments will help inform not only the final national criteria, but our approach to the NYC Overlay, for which we will also solicit your feedback later in the fall.
https://greencommunities.konveio.com/
------------------------------
Raymond Demers
Enterprise Community Partners
Boston MA
------------------------------