Pearl Certification makes high-performing home value visible to benefit homeowners and the contractors, builders, raters, real estate professionals, and public entities who serve them.
Pearl's Standards — and the process through which they are developed — are foundational for how we capture and communicate value.
Pearl Certification endeavors to be the standard to categorize, capture, communicate, and value all features of a home that contribute to its performance throughout its lifecycle.
Pearl Certification exists in a complex ecosystem with existing standards, certifications, labels, codes, and regulations that impact the development, construction, maintenance, valuation, marketing, financing, and insuring of high-performing homes.
Pearl’s High-Performing Home Standard 1 (HPH-1) establishes the standards development procedures used by Pearl Certification to develop, approve, revise, and maintain its consensus-based Standards.
Standards activities should complement, not compete with, existing standards, labels, certifications, and scores.
Questions about Pearl’s Standards can be directed to Pearl’s Standards Management Board at [email protected].
Pearl’s Standards are categorized into four (4) areas:
Pearl designs its Certification System Standards to categorize and communicate a home’s high-performing features. All standards are based in building science and associated subject matter expertise applicable for the topic area. Despite being technical in nature, these standards are intended to be understood by non-building science experts, such as homeowners and all parties in the residential real estate transaction, providing high-quality, accurate information about how homes can be built, improved, and accurately valued.
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Solar
Pearl third-party certifies data about a home’s assets, features, and characteristics. Pearl’s process standards are intended to ensure that:
accurate and trustworthy data about home characteristics are collected, reviewed, approved, and certified and maintained over time.
a homebuyer looking to invest in a home purchase, or a listing agent entering data into the Multiple Listing Service, or an appraiser looking at a home’s “green” features, or a mortgage company or insurer looking to understand different risks about a specific piece of property, have confidence about a home’s features that have been Pearl Certified.
Pearl’s process standards play a critical role in communicating the value of a home’s green and energy-efficient features and why Pearl Certified Homes have been shown to be valued higher than comparable homes.
Pearl develops accreditation standards that establish the qualifications for organizations to be accepted into the Pearl Network. For accredited organizations that provide certifiable data to Pearl, Pearl defines how Qualified Sources of data (e.g., contractors, builders, manufacturers) are identified, verified, and held accountable for the accuracy and completeness of data.
Pearl employs different quality assurance and quality control processes based on whether data is received from a Qualified Source or not. Pearl may require photos, documents, or other supporting documentation before Pearl third-party certifies a home’s characteristics.
Pearl develops micro-credentials and/or credentials of individuals, including 1) the credentials of Pearl staff who are responsible for performing specific tasks associated with the issuance of Pearl Certifications and 2) the credentials of external parties delivering services directly or indirectly associated with the issuance of Pearl Certifications.
Pearl Certification is transforming the housing market. We’re making a visible difference nationwide for homeowners and the businesses that serve them.
