About Us

Explore ENERGY STAR® certified homes and apartments

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) first offered the ENERGY STAR label for new homes in 1995. The program created a national benchmark for superior energy efficiency in homebuilding, with a strong foundation of building science principles and third-party inspections by home energy raters.  

Today, the ENERGY STAR program requirements for residential new construction continue to provide the nation’s homebuilders with a tried-and-true approach to increasing energy efficiency and protecting the environment, while helping both homebuyers and renters to find energy-efficient homes and apartments. 

Built better from the ground up

ENERGY STAR certified homes and apartments are designed and constructed to be more efficient, exceeding minimum energy code requirements by at least 10 percent. They must be independently verified to meet the EPA’s rigorous requirements for insulation, windows, air sealing, and HVAC systems. These features are carefully engineered to improve comfort and performance for the life of the home.

Today, 2,500+ builders, developers, and manufactured housing plants are active in the ENERGY STAR program — including most of the nation’s 25 largest home builders. The program’s impact includes:

•    190,000 ENERGY STAR certified homes and apartments built in 2023, or 12% of all new homes built in America that year,
•    2.7 million homes and apartments that have earned the ENERGY STAR to date,
•    4 million metric tons of nationwide CO₂ emissions reductions.

Two million homes — and counting!

Watch this short video to learn more about ENERGY STAR and celebrate our milestone of two million ENERGY STAR certified homes and apartments!