Green Communities

Buildings are responsible for nearly 40% of emissions globally, giving us the power to slow the pace of climate change through thoughtful building design, construction, and operation.

Twenty years ago, we launched the nation’s only green building program created with and for the affordable housing sector. Today, ours is the most widely adopted criteria in the sector with over 240,000 certified units nationwide and 29 states — along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Chicago, and New York — now requiring or incentivizing developers seeking funding to meet our standards.

Building Green is just one pillar of our comprehensive response to climate change. Our Building Resilient Futures team is also leading the industry in Climate Risk Reduction and Equitable Decarbonization.

2026 Green Communities Criteria: 20 Years Strong

Every five years, Enterprise Green Communities undergoes a refresh to capture the latest technology, best practices, and learnings from the field. The newly launched 2026 Criteria is our 20th anniversary edition. It emerged over 18 months with extensive expert guidance and stakeholder feedback.

Access the 2026 Criteria

The updated standard centers three themes – energy, resilience, and health – and features several refinements, including:

Simplified and streamlined energy criteria
Risk-management options for extreme heat, flooding, wind, and wildfire
New and enhanced strategies for site safety, indoor air quality, universal design, and other ways to support health and well-being

Discover what’s new on the 2026 Green Communities Criteria web platform or download the manual on our Learning Center.

There’s much more ahead, so register now for these upcoming events and stay tuned for approaching milestones:

March 19: Hear from the experts involved in the 2026 Criteria update.
April: Rollout of certification portal and compliance tools
May 14: See how to navigate certification with confidence – and the right set of tools
September 30: Final day to submit an initial prebuild application under the 2020 Criteria

Stay Updated

Our Impact

For over 20 years, our Green Communities have created healthy, sustainable and affordable homes for over 1 million people.

EMISSIONS PREVENTED

26000

of CO₂ emissions prevented by our Green Communities-certified homes.

LIVING GREEN

2600

affordable housing developments nationwide have met Green Communities certification to date.

SAVINGS

332

dollars saved in water and energy costs by our Green Communities-certified homes.

In addition to our industry-leading standards, we provide grants and technical assistance to advance high-quality affordable housing development. We also partner with researchers to improve the health and quality of indoor environments, and engage with federal, state, and local leaders on polices that further green affordable housing development.

All of our capital tools, technical assistance, programs, and policy solutions are designed to make affordable housing in communities across America healthier and more prepared to withstand severe weather events.

Green Communities Criteria

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Our cost-effective, above-code green building program includes integrative design, site considerations, water, energy, healthy building, operations/maintenance, and resident engagement. It is applicable for new construction, substantial and moderate rehabilitation, historic properties, and adaptive reuse across both multifamily and single-family affordable housing projects.

In partnership with the International Well Building Institute and their WELL Building Standard, we’ve leveraged the best of these impactful programs, and created a path for affordable housing developments in the United States to create best-in-class healthy, efficient, and environmentally responsible homes.

Projects that achieve certification with the 2020 Criteria are recognized as certified under both Enterprise Green Communities and the WELL Building Standard. Those achieving certification to the 2026 Criteria will also obtain certification to WELL Residential.

Benefits of Our Approach

Provides strategies to help developments move closer to zero emissions
Outlines resilience criteria that help prepare homes to withstand local weather and climate hazards
Integrates healthy living practices, from ventilation to healing-centered design
Delivers a dual certification with the WELL
Includes water standards that promote efficiency and protect against lead poisoning
Uses an integrative design approach to establish community priorities, giving residents a voice in the process
Promotes economic mobility

Learn more about our criteria and eligibility requirements.

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Community Green

Green Communities

Making Zero Emissions Possible

The 2026 Criteria feature a new optional criterion called Energy Planning. This new standard encourages project teams to develop and implement a plan to reach zero emissions within 20 years of certifying to the 2026 Criteria. Ideally suited to rehabs of existing buildings, our process outlines how project teams can align their capital planning decisions to reduce property emissions. In addition, our new – and highest – tiers of Green Communities certification are available to projects that are designed to be highly efficient, all-electric, and only use clean energy sources, ultimately improving health of their residents, reducing utility bills, and moving to clean power sources.

Learn more.

Ready to Get Started?

We are passionate about turning our best practices into standard practices and are here to support you on this journey. To make things easy, we’ve created a certification portal with everything you need to complete your application.

In addition to a comprehensive overview of our application process, the portal has customizable templates, tools, and calculators for your green building certification submittal. We also host regular office hours to answer your certification questions.

Advancing Green Affordable Housing Development

Three people talking at a construction site

In addition to our industry-leading standards, we partner with researchers and government organizations to advance the field of green affordable housing development.

Our practice-informed guidance leverages more than four decades of experience in both successful advocacy at all levels of government and program execution to create actionable policies. At the national level, we work with affordable housing institutions, including HUD, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae, to associate more favorable financial incentives for housing that achieves green building standards.

Our team continuously strives to deepen our understanding of how green building, policies, and practices can help expand opportunity in communities nationwide. Throughout our history, we have partnered with a variety of leading institutions on research projects designed to advance the field. For example, we collaborated with the National Center for Healthy Housing on “Studying Optimal Ventilation for Environmental Indoor Air Quality.”

Looking to Implement a Green Program in Your State?

Twenty-nine states currently include Green Communities Criteria as part of their Qualified Action Plans for the distribution of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits — and many more include some level of green and/or energy incentive(s). We provide guidance on best practices to housing finance agencies and other organizations to continue moving the needle on green building, and work nationwide with coalition partners to advance green building across the country. Learn more about certification offerings in your state’s QAP.

Start Your Certification

We created a certification portal with a comprehensive overview of our application process, eligibility requirements, customizable templates, tools and more. Start your submittal today.

Get Certified