Mark McCrerey, manager of McCrerey Fine Homes LLC, is a NAHB Graduate Master Builder and Certified Green Building Professional. The ultimate symbol of the building professional, the Graduate Master Builder (GMB) designation is for experienced veterans only. Before beginning the GMB designation process, you must have the CGB designation, the CGR designation, or the CGA designation with five years of building experience, or ten years of building experience and have completed three CGB/CGR/CGA courses. GMB courses are more advanced with in-depth instruction geared for experienced building professionals.
Mark McCrerey is a National Association of Homebuilders Certified Green Building Professional. (CGBP) Offered by NAHB's University of Housing, the Certified Green Professional designation is another way building professionals can become educated in, and involved with green building. The designation requires 24 hours of NAHB-approved training, and additional continuing education every two years. Subjects covered in training discuss how green homes provide buyers with lower energy costs and higher value, and will include strategies for incorporating green-building principles into homes without driving up the cost of construction. The designation curriculum requires completion of the Green Building for Building Professionals two-day course and either the Business Management for Building Professionals one-day course or having another current NAHB professional designation.
McCrerey Fine Homes, LLC is a registered Built Green Colorado builder, and E-Star partner. Every home they build conforms to Built Green Colorado standards, and is E-Star rated. Introduced in 1995, Built Green Colorado is one of oldest and largest green home building programs in the nation. A voluntary industry-driven program of the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver offered to builders across the state, the purpose of Built Green Colorado is to encourage home builders to use technologies, products and practices that result in homes that are better built and better for the environment.
E-Star™ is a division of the Smart Energy Living Alliance™, a Colorado-based nonprofit, and is committed to advancing energy efficiency in housing. To meet this objective, E-Star partners with, supports, and provides information through its Energy Ratings to participants in the housing industry. This includes homeowners and homebuyers, builders, Home Energy Raters, real estate professionals, code officials, and utilities. E-Star understands the diverse concerns of each of these groups in respect to energy efficiency and its interrelation with factors such as construction schedules, comfort, home value, environmental issues, and cost concerns.
Advancing energy-efficiency in homes has far-reaching effects from local to global. To start with the individual, decreased utility use saves the homeowner money, and may qualify a homebuyer for special energy-efficient mortgages with additional purchasing power. E-Star wants to make homeownership more affordable and easier to accomplish. Higher energy efficiency correlates with higher quality; another homeowner benefit. At the level of the local economy, E-Star pursues its aims by supporting the business community that is helping to create higher quality, energy-efficient homes, as well as sell and finance them. This includes the builders, raters, real estate professionals, code officials, and utilities.
E-Star helps builders distinguish themselves in the market, adding revenue, while promoting job growth for more knowledgeable and higher-quality workers in this sector. At the state and national level, decreased energy use means less reliance on centralized fuel sources, less outages, and less vulnerability to terrorist attack or events in volatile oil-producing areas of the world, such as the Middle East.
As a nation, efficient energy use means that the money saved in energy can be spent elsewhere. E-Star contributes to better use of national resources without sacrifices in quality of life or standard of living. At the global level, E-Star's efforts result in less burning of fossil fuels, which harm the environment and decrease air quality. E-Star's environmental impact spans from the air in an individual home to contributing to decreased pollution in the world at large.
