In 2007 the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the International Code Council (ICC) partnered to form and establish a much-needed and nationally-recognizable standard definition of what is meant by "Green Building."

A consensus committee was formed to develop this standard in compliance with the requirements of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The resulting ANSI approved ICC-700-2008 National Green Building Standard defines green building for single and multifamily homes, residential remodeling projects and site development projects while still allowing for the flexibility required for regionally-appropriate best green practices.

Similar to the NAHB Model Green Homebuilding Guidelines, a builder, remodeler or developer must incorporate a minimum number of features in the following areas: energy, water, and resource efficiency, lot and site development, indoor environmental quality, and home owner education. The more points accrued, the higher the score.

The Standard, however, includes more mandatory items and suggests that higher thresholds be met in several categories. A new threshold - "Emerald" - was added to denote the highest achievement in residential green construction.

The Green Scoring Tool allows scoring a building to the Standard (as well as the NAHB Model Green Home Building Guidelines), and includes decision support materials such as how to verify, implement, resources, and Green Approved Products.