The Certified Ratings Program sponsored by the Florida Home Builders Association provides energy and water efficiency certifications, like Florida Water Star, ERI, and WERS. Builders get independent ratings to industry standards and promote sustainability.
The Certified Ratings Program provides an Energy Rating Index (ERI) which provides energy usage estimates for homes. For example, this allows home buyers to compare similar homes they are interested in.
Florida Water Star℠ is a water conservation certification program for homes, commercial buildings, and community developments with standards and guidelines for water efficiency. For a building or community to become Florida Water Star℠ certified, an approved Inspector shall first verify each project conforms to Florida Water Star℠ requirements. The Certified Ratings Program provides certified Florida Water Star℠ certificates.
WERS is a performance-based water efficiency program for both new and existing properties. This approach to water efficiency preserves design freedom and product choice flexibility. Third-party analysis and data collection is utilized to generate both a score and predict water usage for single-family and multifamily properties.
The Certified Ratings Program expanded offerings to more certificates that allow smaller steps for builders and inspectors to incrementally complete. The goal is to make energy code compliance easy for the builder, inspector and the building department.