An assessment of greener homes by coding and rating system

![CDATA[The design, construction, and maintenance of buildings have a tremendous impact on the environment and natural resources. Building contributes almost 40 percent of CO2 emissions and is a major contributor to the Green House Gas Emissions (GHG). Making our homes greener requires optimization of environmental impacts through efficient use of energy, water and building materials and proper disposal of waste. The study is an attempt to address the issues of greener homes by introducing codes leading to a rating system to minimize the environmental damage during its life span and to revolutionize the design of new buildings for healthy and more sustainable lifestyles. The code has been proposed based on six criteria covering energy, water, materials, waste, ecology, health and wellbeing. Each criterion is assessed and weighted based on its relative importance and a total score is obtained after assessing all the criteria. The buildings are rated with in a scale of 1-5 indicating how green the buildings are. It also recommended that all buildings should be certified or coded by a licensed and accredited code assessor to ensure that the rating is independent and trustworthy.]]