The Northeast Home Energy Rating System (NEHERS) Alliance was formed in 1998 to foster, unify and promote HERS programs in the Northeast (i.e. New England, New York and New Jersey). Since that time, the Alliance and its 20+ member organizations have developed goals and objectives for achieving its mission of standardizing and increasing home energy ratings (HERS), energy mortgages (EM's), and ENERGY STAR Homes throughout the region, which include:

Developing and strengthening the competency and capacity of the emerging HERS programs in the Northeast; and

Coordinating and unifying the HERS programs in the region in order to achieve and maintain national HERS accreditation.

Serving as a mechanism to promote adherence to the national HERS guidelines and standards within the Northeast region.

By coordinating and standardizing the most important components of the regional HERS programs, the Alliance increases individual and overall HERS program effectiveness and develops a strong regional foundation from which existing and emerging programs can flourish. To facilitate enhanced regional program recognition and consumer outreach capacity, the Alliance has and will continue to develop strategic partnerships with a variety of housing and energy industry professionals and organizations regionally and nationally.

There are now accredited HERS providers (link to Accredited HERS providers map) in every state in the Northeast--one of the early goals of the Alliance--and the numbers continue to grow. Many of these providers have both successful HERS programs and demonstrated management and technical excellence in many broad-based initiatives related to residential energy efficiency.