Request a proposal In the field. In the documents. On the record.Affordable housing sustainability
Certification services from criteria selection and prebuild submission through design coordination, construction verification, and postbuild documentation.
Request a proposalIn plain terms
Enterprise Green Communities is a green-building framework for affordable housing. It addresses more than energy: the applicable criteria also concern site and community considerations, water, materials, health, resilience, and ongoing operations. Certification needs evidence across the project, not simply an efficient equipment schedule.
Scope, requirements & reporting
Enterprise has released its 2026 Criteria. Its published transition guidance requires projects using the 2020 pathway to submit their initial Prebuild application before October 1, 2026 to remain on that pathway through certification. Confirm the project’s registration status, applicable mandatory criteria, optional-point requirements, and funding-agency direction.
HPD requires covered new construction and substantial or gut rehabilitation projects receiving its funding to follow the applicable Enterprise criteria with NYC requirements, or an accepted alternative certification pathway. Check HPD’s current direction and overlay alongside Enterprise’s criteria; satisfying a national criterion does not automatically settle a local funding condition.
Translate criteria into responsibilities for the owner, architect, engineers, contractor, and verification team. Track specifications, submittals, installation evidence, testing, and operations documents through closeout. KOW manages the certification checklist, coordinates criteria and verification with the project team, and prepares prebuild and postbuild submissions and review responses.
The project needs a criteria checklist with the applicable version, mandatory items, selected optional credits, agency overlays, responsible parties, evidence, and due dates. Maintain the checklist through substitutions and construction changes. Collect product records, test results, and operations documentation while the work is underway rather than reconstructing the file at closeout.
Decisions supported
Which criteria and pathway apply to the project?
What design and documentation decisions are required at each stage?
How should responsibilities be assigned across the project team?
What items require tracking through construction and closeout?
Typical scope
The final scope follows the property, transaction, program, client requirements, and information available. Typical elements include:
Process
Confirm the property or project, intended use, reliance parties, schedule, available information, and required deliverable.
Review the documents, identify gaps, and coordinate the people and access needed to complete the scope.
Perform the observations, analysis, interviews, and specialist coordination called for by the assignment.
Separate material findings from background information and state the basis, limitations, open items, and follow-up clearly.
Common assignments
Criteria coordination integrated into design and construction planning.
A practical compliance approach suited to existing-building constraints.
Documentation and tracking organized around the project’s funding commitments.
Frequently asked
Not necessarily. HPD applies its own requirements and accepted pathways. Confirm the financing commitments and NYC overlay alongside the Enterprise criteria.
No. The criteria also address topics such as water, materials, health, site considerations, and operations. The selected pathway requires documented evidence across the project.
Prebuild establishes the intended compliance approach. Postbuild documents completed work and required verification. Track changes so the final evidence supports the approved approach.
Use it only as a starting reference. Confirm the current version, application timing, project type, and agency requirements before relying on its selected measures.
Early coordination helps the team select the applicable pathway, assign responsibilities, incorporate criteria into the design and specifications, and protect time for construction and closeout documentation.
Owners, developers, architects, engineers, contractors, verifiers, financing partners, and other specialists may each hold part of the documentation or implementation responsibility.
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Tell us what you’re working on. Our team will help define the right scope and get a proposal moving.
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