As more and more homes become certified through leading green building programs, a growing number are incorporating vinyl siding to achieve points. In fact, the nation's first home to be certified at the Emerald level by the ANSI-approved ICC 700-2008 National Green Building Standard™ gained a portion of its 724 points by using vinyl siding.

The home that achieved Emerald status – the highest level of certification in the National Green Building Standard rating system – was built by RGB Custom Builders of East Stroudsburg, PA.

According to an RGB spokesperson, vinyl siding contributed to achieving points because it is an exterior cladding that did not require additional finishing on-site.

And that's just one of the ways vinyl siding can contribute to achieving points for resource and energy efficiency. Other criteria that vinyl siding can help satisfy include:

		Life-cycle analysis
		Recycled-content building materials (materials with recycled content of 25 to 75 percent)
		Termite-resistant materials
		Indigenous materials (depending on the distance between the manufacturing plant and the building site)
		Innovative practices (product manufacturer's operation includes environmental management system concept and the production facility is ISO 14001 certified or equivalent)
		Energy cost performance (insulated vinyl siding may contribute to achieving energy cost performance that exceeds the International Energy Conservation Code requirements from the International Code Council)
		Building envelope (insulated vinyl siding may contribute to a total building thermal envelope UA that outperforms code minimum values)