The award winners of the 2018 RESNET Cross Border Home Builder Challenge, which helps promote the utilization of the HERS® Index have been announced by Steve Baden, Executive Director of RESNET, and John Godden, President of the Canadian counterpart CRESNET at the 2018 RESNET Building Performance in Orlando, Florida. “With over 2 million homes rated in the US, the HERS® Index is the industry standard by which a home’s energy efficiency is now being measured in the US and Canada. It’s also the nationally recognized system for inspecting and calculating a home’s energy performance,” noted Steve Baden. “The RESNET Cross Border Challenge is a friendly competition between American and Canadian Home Builders to determine just how energy efficient builders can build,” noted John Godden. There were a total of ten builder awards presented for this year’s competition; five were based on having the lowest HERS® score for their specific category, sponsored by Power-Pipe®, two were special President’s awards based on a fleet of HERS® new home ratings, sponsored by Icynene, and two were Net Zero awards including PV Solar applications sponsored by Dow. New this year was the Enbridge Innovation Award sponsored by Enbridge Gas Distribution. This international award went to the builder in the US or Canada that HERS® rated a home demonstrating energy/resource innovation in new home construction. The 2018 Cross Border Challenge award winners are: RESNET President’s Award The award is for the American Production Builder with the highest percentage of homes rated under HERS® score 54. The award winner is Lennar Minnesota for having 88% of the homes they built in 2017 having a HERS® Index Score of under 54. RESNET President Award from left to right Nancy St. Hilaire, RESNET Board President; Eric Boyd representing Lennar Minnesota; John Broniek, Icynene and Rod Buchalter of RenewABILITY Energy Inc., Chairman of the Cross Border Builder Challenge Committee CRESNET President’s Award The award is for the Canadian Production Builder with the highest percentage of homes rated under HERS® score 54. The award winner is Heathwood Homes, GTA for having all of their homes built in 2017 having a HERS® Index Score of under 54. CRESNET President Award from left to right Steve Doty representing Heathwood Homes; John Godden, CRESNET President; John Broniek, Icynene and Rod Buchalter of RenewABILITY Energy Inc, Chairman of the Cross Border Builder Challenge Committee This was the first time that both builders won their awards. Other Cross Border Builder Winners include: Net Zero American Builder – Greenhill Contracting, New York with a HERS® Index Score of -2 (3rd year in a row winning the award) Lowest HERS® Index Score American Custom Builder – Reding Homes, Nebraska with a HERS® Index Score of 26 Lowest HERS® Index Score American Production Builder – Lennar Minnesota with a HERS® Index Score of 46 Lowest HERS® Index Score Canadian Production Builder – Brookfield Residential,GTA with a HERS® Index Score of 38 Lowest HERS® Index Score Canadian Mid Production Builder – Geranium Homes, GTA with a HERS® Index Score of 39 Lowest HERS® Index Score Canadian Custom Builder – Castleform Construction, GTA with a HERS® Index Score of 20 Net Zero Canadian Builder – Empire Communities, Breslau with a HERS® Index Score of 19 Enbridge Innovation Award – Empire Communities, Breslau for their Hybrid Home Winners in all Lowest HERS® Index Score categories each won a free Power-Pipe® Drain Water Heat Recovery System from Renewability Energy Inc as part of their awards.
