Green building certifications continue to be one of the most sought after ways for property owners to demonstrate their buildings’ environmental sustainability. These programs, many of which have now been in place for decades, exist in large part as a reward mechanism to encourage greener building practices. By satisfying a list of established criteria (which typically include various iterations of energy, water, and resource efficiency), a building can obtain formal verification that its commitment to sustainability is backed by real, measurable change. While these programs - like EDGE, LEED and BREEAM - have certainly pushed the needle on decarbonizing and ‘cleaning up’ the commercial building industry, the unfortunate reality is that they have struggled to extend themselves to the global, affordable housing sector, often excluding participation of the communities most in need of alternative housing finance.

Let’s take, for example, the Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) Program, which is considered one of the most widely used and recognized programs for green building globally. Created by IFC and the World Bank, EDGE is framed as a green building certification that “empowers emerging markets to scale up resource-efficient buildings in a fast, easy, and affordable way” [1], yet the minimum cost of certification is listed at $3,249 [2]. According to a review of the EDGE certification process commissioned by FSD Kenya [3], this fee represents nearly 18% of the average cost of constructing a typical self-build house in Kenya. Considering self-builders in the affordable housing sector already face enormous hurdles in raising the funds needed to build their homes, the high fee for certification presents a barrier to entry for low-income housing that is often insurmountable.

As for the criteria themselves, EDGE offers an extensive catalog of sustainability options that builders can choose from in order to demonstrate the minimum requirement of improving energy, water, and resource efficiency by 20%, from low-flow faucets and showerheads that maximize water use, to reflective roofs that reduce a house’s cooling load [4]. But many of these products are hard to find in emerging markets and, when they are available, may not come with the formal documentation (i.e. manufacturer’s data sheets and technical specs) required by EDGE to verify compliance.

Plus, many of the criteria offered by EDGE simply do not apply to affordable homes in the informal sector. Three examples underscore this point. First, for renewable energy usage to count towards a home’s reduced energy consumption, that energy must be generated on-site, or at the home, which often requires higher up-front installation costs and leaves no benefit for those who source from community-based and grid-based off-site renewables. Second, no explicit benefit is provided for transitioning from high-carbon wood stoves to clean cooking solutions, which has been identified as one of the most cost-effective and impactful pathways for reducing global emissions [5]. And third, while energy savings can be granted for using an energy-efficient refrigerator instead of a standard refrigerator, no reward is provided for not having a refrigerator at all, which can be common in self-build, low-income housing sectors and, naturally, offers the most energy savings.

These challenges are not just restricted to EDGE. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Program, which is the most widely used program in the US, has also struggled to apply itself to global, emerging markets. Their online project directory [6] (which, granted, may not be entirely comprehensive) reveals that, of the ~11,000 registered projects in the residential housing category, less than 100 are in lower- or lower middle-income countries. BREEAM, the most widely used green certification program in the UK and many other European countries, is also largely absent from the developing countries that represent a substantial portion of the low-income housing sector. All in all, green housing certifications have not been widely adopted in the places experiencing the fastest population surges and, therefore, experiencing the brunt of the affordable housing deficit. Africa’s population rise represents about 50% of global growth [7].

To understand the consequences of these barriers, it is important to recognize that these certification programs do not just serve as symbolic stamps of approval; they also unlock exclusive access to financing. Many financial institutions that offer green financing products - like tax rebates, low interest loans, and subsidies for sustainable housing projects - require proof of certification in order to ensure their investments are environmentally impactful, and to easily quantify those impacts. In other words, these certification programs have succeeded in benchmarking and setting standards for the sustainable housing sector - standards that are now tied to tangible incentives. And the exclusion of the low-income housing sector from these programs represents a significant disadvantage in being able to access those incentives.

Without adapting these programs to better suit the resources and circumstances of the 1.6 billion people with inadequate housing [8], these certifications - and the financial benefits that accompany them - will continue to miss out on serving the populations at the frontlines of the global housing crisis. What’s more, costly, burdensome, and restrictive certification programs can help propel the false narrative that sustainability and affordability are mutually exclusive, rather than promoting recognition and reward for the low-income, green housing projects that are dispelling the myth that building green is only for the rich [9].

It is critical that we consider the climate and housing crises as connected - not just in their impacts but also in their solutions - and green certification programs offer a pathway to meaningfully address both. It is just a matter of making sure that pathway is accessible to those most in need of it. Technology can play a critical role in bridging that gap. Platforms like the one developed by iBUILD are helping to digitize the sustainable housing sector, supporting affordable housing builders to more easily build green. iBUILD helps builders understand and meet sustainability criteria, while offering an easy-to-use, streamlined system that quantifies and verifies environmental impacts so that homeowners and builders can demonstrate their sustainability achievements to green finance programs and unlock new access to housing finance.