Desiderio Joins NAHB Research Center as Director of Green Building Programs

Seasoned Green Building Professional to Enhance National Green Building Certification Offerings

Upper Marlboro, MD - April 07, 2009 - (RealEstateRama) — Today the NAHB Research Center welcomes a new member to its management team – Michelle Desiderio is now the Director of Green Building Programs. Desiderio’s green home building expertise has been fostered over her 15 years in the housing industry including previous positions at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Fannie Mae, and the National Capital Planning Commission.

“We are excited to add Michelle to our green building team,” said Michael Luzier, NAHB Research Center president. “She is a seasoned industry professional with a wealth of experience in the environmental arena. She is exactly the right person to have at the helm of our National Green Building Certification program, especially now as so many new opportunities have been created for builder, remodeler, developer, and manufacturer participation with the ANSI approval earlier this year of the National Green Building Standardâ„¢.”

Just prior to joining the NAHB Research Center, Desiderio was a planner with the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) where she exposed the significant risk of flooding in downtown Washington, D.C. This resulted in the collaboration of over 100 federal and local leaders during a two-day forum to develop comprehensive flood mitigation measures.

Before her tenure with NCPC, Desiderio managed Fannie Mae’s Housing and Environment Initiative which promoted housing affordability through energy- and location-efficient homes. At Fannie Mae, she developed the Smart Commute Mortgage and revamped the Energy Efficient Mortgage to promote green housing homeownership. In addition, she developed a patent-winning methodology to calculate the emissions reductions from energy-efficient homes so the reductions could be sold as energy credits on emerging carbon markets.

As Assistant Staff Vice President at NAHB, Desiderio represented the home building industry on legislative and regulatory policy issues regarding endangered species, air quality, and solid waste management. She also authored “The Developer’s Guide to Endangered Species Regulation,” which still serves as the definitive resource on ESA policy and regulation for the residential development industry.

Desiderio has a Masters in Urban Planning and Environmental Studies from the University of Virginia, and a BS in Environmental Studies from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Since February 2008, the NAHB Research Center has been administering National Green Building Certification using the NAHB Model Green Home Building Guidelines as its scoring platform; the option to have a project scored to the National Green Building Standard became available when the Standard was approved by ANSI in January 2009. For more information on National Green Building Certification and the National Green Building Standard, visit the NAHBGreen website

ABOUT THE NAHB RESEARCH CENTER: Located in Upper Marlboro, Md., the NAHB Research Center promotes innovation in housing technology to improve the quality, durability, affordability, and environmental performance of homes and home building products. Created over 40 years ago as a subsidiary of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the NAHB Research Center has established itself as the source for reliable, objective information and research on housing construction and development issues. Through its various testing and certification services, the Research Center seal is internationally-recognized as a mark of product quality and an assurance of product performance.

Contact: Anne Holtz

Tagged as: Fannie Mae, green building, NAHB, NCPC, Upper Marlboro