Certifications and incentives worth pursuing
PHIUS, LEED, ENERGY STAR and the National Green Building Standard all reward the same envelope work. Which to pursue depends on the building type and who is paying.
The programs
PHIUS certifies to a climate-specific passive standard and is the most demanding on the envelope. LEED scores a broad set of categories, of which energy is one. ICC-700, the National Green Building Standard, is the residential equivalent. EPA Indoor airPLUS adds indoor air quality requirements on top of ENERGY STAR.
They overlap heavily on the envelope, which means one set of construction decisions can serve several programs.
Product certification versus building certification
A certified product is not a certified building, and a certified building does not require certified products. What a certified product does is remove one variable from the assessment and shorten the paperwork.
Guardian states the Shield™ system is the first, and currently the only, panel system in the United States certified by the Passive House Institute US. The certificate's summary page is shown on the products page.
What Guardian publishes
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Guardian states Shield™ is the first, and currently the only, panel system in the US certified by the Passive House Institute US.
Source · Products page
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Cold-formed steel meets the highest sustainability requirements in all major green building standards, including PHIUS, LEED and the National Green Building Standard ICC-700 for residential buildings.
Source · Products page, environment section
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The Shield™ specification references the EPA Indoor airPLUS Construction Specifications Version 1 (Rev. 04).
Source · 3-Part Specification 1.3 G
Go deeper
EPA Indoor airPLUS Construction Specifications, Version 1 (Rev. 04)
U.S. Army Corps Air Leakage Testing ProtocolU.S. Army Corps of Engineers Air Leakage Test Protocol for Building Envelopes
FAQDo the panels qualify for green building programs?
FAQIs the Shield™ system certified for passive house?
Published by Guardian Structural Technologies. Last updated .
Drafted from our product literature and published building-science sources. Awaiting our technical review. Confirm any figure against the current product documents or ask us before you rely on it in a design.