The 2026 EEBA Building Excellence Awards brought together the high-performance home building industry to recognize the leading builders, suppliers, and professionals pushing the industry forward. Presented during the EEBA High Performance Home Builder Summit this year in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the awards celebrated innovation and leadership in healthier homes, resiliency, electrification, decarbonization, and high-performance housing.
This year’s awards were evaluated by a diverse group of industry professionals, including sustainability directors, home energy raters, high-performance field specialists, program directors, market transformation leaders, manufacturers, and architects. Each brings specialized expertise and a shared commitment to advancing high-performance housing within their respective organizations and across the industry. Their collective knowledge helped recognize projects and partners demonstrating meaningful progress in building better-performing homes.
Congratulations to all of the 2026 EEBA Building Excellence Awards winners and finalists for their contributions to the future of high-performance homebuilding!
DENH Awards: Advancing High-Performance Housing
The Department of Energy's Efficient New Homes (DENH) awards recognize builders advancing high-performance home construction across a range of project types, from custom homes to production-scale and attached housing.
DENH Spec Award
Winner: LEGEND HOMES LLC – Woburn
The DENH Spec Award recognizes builders setting a higher standard for high-performance homes through innovative design, thoughtful building practices, and a commitment to quality and efficiency.
Legend Homes earned this year's award for 2602 Woburn, a 2,000-square-foot, five-bedroom home in Bellingham, Washington. It was originally envisioned as co-housing for multiple families. The first floor is designed for aging in place and accommodates mobility impairments, and the second floor adds four bedrooms and two full bathrooms for flexible layouts. That makes it well suited to multi-generational families or groups of friends buying together. The home is also net zero energy, with a 9.84-kW solar array, passive solar design, and a HERS Index of -4. It is DOE DENH (formally Zero Energy Ready Home), ENERGY STAR, and EPA Indoor AirPlus certified. Woburn shows how high-performance homebuilding can adapt to changing household needs.
Finalists:
DENH Attached & Affordable Award
Winner: Sager Development and Crosskey Architects – 80 South
The DENH Attached & Affordable Award recognizes innovative attached and multifamily projects that show how thoughtful design, efficient construction, and high-performance building practices can create comfortable, durable, efficient, and attainable homes.
This year's winner is Crosskey Architects, for 80 South in Farmington, Connecticut. The 65-unit community brings together working families, essential healthcare employees, and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, with a quarter of the units designed with Favarh to exceed Universal Design standards. It is also all-electric, with solar and central heat pump hot water. It meets LEED for Homes v4 Gold and DOE DENH (formally Zero Energy Ready Home) standards, with a HERS Index of 42 or lower. 80 South shows that affordable, inclusive housing can also be high-performing.
Finalists:
DENH Custom for Buyer Award
Winner: Charis Homes – Amherst Glen
The DENH Custom for Buyer Award recognizes builders who show exceptional innovation, craftsmanship, and dedication in creating high-performance custom homes tailored to the homeowner's unique needs and vision.
This year's winner is Charis Homes, for Amherst Glen, a 7,834-square-foot, all-electric home in Climate Zone 5A. Rather than relying on one standout feature, Charis Homes designed every major system to work together: a geothermal heat pump for heating, cooling, and hot water preheating, a 13.28-kW solar array, a Tesla Powerwall 3 for backup, and a smart electrical panel for circuit-level control. A tight, well-insulated enclosure (R-60 attic, 1.38 ACH50) keeps demand low from the start.
The result is a HERS Index of -2 with solar, a modeled annual energy cost of just $96, and projected annual savings of over $12,600. Amherst Glen shows that a large custom home can be luxurious, resilient, and net-positive on energy.
Finalists:
DENH Production Award
Winner: Beazer Homes – Atlanta Greenhouse 104
The DENH Production Award celebrates builders who successfully bring innovation to production-scale homebuilding, creating healthy, efficient, comfortable, and durable homes with solutions that can be implemented at scale.
Beazer Homes received this year's award for Atlanta GreenHouse 104, a 3,314-square-foot home in Marietta, Georgia, with a reported HERS Index of 0 when accounting for solar. The home is part of GreenHouse, a 591-home master-planned community. It is billed as the largest community in the U.S. offering Zero Energy Ready certified homes, and it also has miles of trails, pocket parks, and gardens. Beazer builds with 2x6 framing, advanced framing techniques, and enhanced attic insulation, and includes an energy recovery ventilator for better indoor air quality. The project shows that exceptional energy performance is achievable in production housing and can reach more homeowners at scale.
Finalists:
EEBA Builder Leader Awards: Raising the Bar for Better Homes
The EEBA Builder Leader Awards recognize builders and industry partners advancing the future of high-performance homebuilding. This year's awards highlighted projects and organizations working to create healthier living environments, strengthen home resiliency, advance electrification, and reduce carbon emissions.
Excellence in Resiliency
Winner: Empire Homes – The Healthier Resiliency Discovery Home
The Excellence in Resiliency Award recognizes homes designed with resilience in mind, featuring solutions that help them withstand and recover from challenges such as extreme heat, storms, flooding, wildfire, drought, earthquakes, and other severe weather.
Empire Homes received this year's award for The Healthier Resiliency Discovery Home, built with ERTH360 and industry partners to show that a climate-resistant production home is attainable with existing trades. It is designed to meet or exceed EF1 tornado wind speeds, using engineered Simpson Strong-Tie connections and a continuous load path, and to resist hail up to 45 mm with Class 4 shingles, LP SmartSide siding, and laminated triple-pane windows. Foundation waterproofing and drainage details protect against flash flooding. A HEPA and MERV 13 filtration package supports indoor air quality. As Empire's first CHBA Net Zero home, it also has solar and battery backup and a HERS Index of 5.
Finalists:
Excellence in Healthier Homes
The Excellence in Healthier Homes Award recognizes builders who prioritize the connection between home design and occupant health and well-being. Strategies may include improving indoor air quality, using low-VOC materials, incorporating air filtration, and reducing exposure to potentially hazardous materials.
Empire Homes also earned this award for The Healthier Resiliency Discovery Home, which takes the view that a home should do more than protect people from the weather. It should actively support their health. The home's ERTH360 Wellness package is built around advanced air quality, starting with layered filtration: a three-stage bypass HEPA purifier with a MERV 11 prefilter and active carbon filter, plus a 5-inch MERV 13 whole-home filter. An upsized energy recovery ventilator with its own MERV 13 filter brings in fresh air, and the mechanical system was engineered for the higher static pressure that filtration adds. Air distribution is verified by a third party, and the whole package is designed to meet ASHRAE 241-2023. A circadian lighting system also supports better sleep, with blue-rich light in the morning and very little in the evening. Foundation waterproofing and a capillary break help keep moisture out of the basement, and an airtight envelope (0.66 ACH50) keeps air quality controlled and predictable. The home shows that healthier living can be built into an attainable production home, not just reserved for custom builds.
Winner: Empire Homes – The Healthier Resiliency Discovery Home
Finalists:
Excellence in Electrification
Winner: Charis Homes – Amherst Glen
Sponsored by Xcel Energy, the Excellence in Electrification Award highlights homes demonstrating the climate, health, comfort, and economic benefits of electrification. The award recognizes all-electric building strategies and the technologies helping make them possible.
Charis Homes also earned this award for Amherst Glen, a 7,834-square-foot custom home that shows electrification can work at large scale. At its center is a four-ton WaterFurnace Series 7 ground-source heat pump, which provides heating and cooling with no onsite fossil-fuel combustion and delivers conditioned air through a four-zone compact duct system. The same geothermal system preheats water for a Navien heat pump water heater, which cuts the electrical demand of hot water. A 13.28-kW rooftop solar array is sized to offset the home's annual energy use, a Tesla Powerwall 3 battery provides backup power, and a SPAN smart panel gives the homeowners circuit-level insight into how they use energy. A high-performance enclosure, including R-60 attic insulation, continuous exterior insulation, and a blower door result of 1.38 ACH50, keeps the electrical load low to begin with. The result is a HERS Index of -2 with solar, a modeled annual energy cost of just $96, and projected annual savings of over $12,600. Amherst Glen proves that an all-electric home can be comfortable, resilient, and net-positive on energy, even in a cold climate.
Finalists:
Excellence in Decarbonization
Winner: DUST Development – The Northview Farmhouse
This award recognizes builders taking a thoughtful, measurable approach to reducing operational and embodied carbon. Strategies can include evaluating materials, construction processes, energy use, and other factors that contribute to a home's overall carbon impact.
DUST Development earned this year's award for The Northview Farmhouse, a 2,343-square-foot, single-story home in Glendale, Arizona, built on a lot where the previous house burned down. The team treated the rebuild as a chance to build differently, designing the enclosure, mechanical equipment, ventilation, and materials as one integrated system. On the operational side, the home is all-electric, with a high-efficiency Lennox air-source heat pump and a Rheem heat pump water heater (4.05 UEF), so there is no onsite fossil-fuel combustion and a clear path to net-zero operation as renewable electricity is added. A tight, well-insulated enclosure supports that goal, with continuous exterior insulation, aerosolized air sealing that reached 1.4 ACH50, and ductwork inside the conditioned space. On the materials side, the exterior uses Green Cork, chosen for its fire resilience and as part of DUST's commitment to healthier, lower-carbon materials. The home projects savings of over $3,100 per year compared with an average U.S. home and meets ENERGY STAR Versions 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3. DUST also specified an off-the-shelf window glass package that any builder can order, which shows these carbon-saving strategies can be repeated and scaled.
Finalists:
Recognizing Industry Milestones
In addition to the project awards, EEBA recognized two significant industry achievements.
Most Homes Built This Year: Lennar
Primarily through its San Antonio division, Lennar built an impressive 5,867 homes this year, earning recognition for its production volume.
10,000 Homes Built: Beazer Homes
Beazer Homes was recognized for reaching the milestone of 10,000 homes built. This achievement represents thousands of families benefiting from the comfort, efficiency, and quality of their homes.
Recognizing Excellence Across the Industry
Top Supplier Award
Winner: DuPont
The Top Supplier Award recognizes excellence in supply chain partnerships and products, celebrating the suppliers whose innovation, collaboration, and commitment to quality help move the high-performance building industry forward.
This year, EEBA proudly recognized DuPont for its continued contributions to the industry and its longstanding partnership with EEBA. For approximately 25 years, DuPont has been an incredible supporter and sponsor of the organization, demonstrating a lasting commitment to advancing high-performance homebuilding.
We’re grateful for DuPont’s continued partnership and support, which help strengthen our industry and advance the innovations needed to build better-performing homes. Congratulations to the entire DuPont team on this well-deserved recognition, and thank you for nearly 25 years of partnership with EEBA!
Congratulations to All Our 2026 Finalists and Winners!
EEBA congratulates every organization recognized in this year's Building Excellence Awards. From innovative custom homes to scalable production housing and new approaches to healthier, more resilient buildings, these projects demonstrate the work underway to advance high-performance homebuilding.
A special thank-you to Xcel Energy for sponsoring the Excellence in Electrification Award, as well as all our sponsors, partners, and supporters who helped make the awards possible. We also thank everyone who submitted a project or nominated a deserving organization.
The work continues beyond the awards ceremony. By sharing ideas, celebrating innovation, and learning from one another, we can continue raising the standard for the homes and communities we build.
Learn more about EEBA and the High Performance Home Builder Summit at https://summit.eeba.org/, and join us for the next Summit in Aurora, Colorado, on September 14–15, 2027!