The Difference Between a Home Certification and a Home Badge
Understanding Pearl’s recognition types for high-performing homes.
Pearl offers two distinct ways to recognize high-performing homes: certifications and badges. While both demonstrate a home's superior qualities, they serve different purposes and represent different levels of achievement.
Pearl Certification
Pearl Certification is a comprehensive evaluation of a home's overall performance across five key areas: Safety, Comfort, Operations, Resilience, and Energy (SCORE). Homes that meet certain scoring thresholds and feature requirements can earn Silver, Gold, or Platinum certification. These certifications reflect a holistic assessment of the home as a system and its ability to deliver a high level of performance across multiple dimensions.
Key Characteristics of Pearl Certification:
- Comprehensive: Evaluates the entire home across the five SCORE pillars.
- Tiered Levels: Offers Silver, Gold, and Platinum certifications based on performance and feature requirements.
- Systemic Assessment: Considers how different features work together to impact overall performance.
- Holistic Recognition: Recognizes a home's overall quality and performance level.
Pearl Badges
Pearl Badges, on the other hand, are focused on recognizing specific achievements or attributes of a home. These badges highlight particular features or performance characteristics, such as the absence of fossil fuel usage.
Key Characteristics of Pearl Badges:
- Specific Focus: Recognizes individual achievements or attributes.
- Feature-Based: Highlights specific features or performance characteristics.
- Targeted Recognition: Acknowledges specific sustainability or efficiency accomplishments.
- Standalone or Supplemental: Can be earned independently or in addition to a Pearl Certification.
In summary:
Pearl Certification provides a comprehensive assessment of a home's overall performance and awards tiered levels of recognition. Pearl Badges offer specific recognition for particular achievements or attributes, highlighting individual features or performance characteristics. Both certifications and badges serve to showcase a home's high-performing qualities, but they do so in different ways.