Home improvement retailer The Home Depot has teamed up with the USGBC to launch an online green home products database for builders. Accessible at leed.homedepot.com, the online database is a microsite within homedepot.com that helps builders find products geared toward green home building, many of which may contribute toward earning LEED points and prerequisites for the LEED for Homes program.

The database, which contains more than 2,500 products sold at The Home Depot, is organized by a product “wheel” that allows users to choose a category (i.e., trim) and then see a list of qualifying products. The site also lists the LEED categories under which the product falls—such as Energy & Atmosphere—along with a summary of the LEED point system.

Nate Kredich, vice president of Residential Development at USGBC, says that the online tool is obviously good news for the LEED brand, but adds that it is even better news for the green building industry as a whole, calling it “a revolutionary piece to the puzzle.”

“Now we are driving the sustainability message at the product level into the consumer home,” Kredich says. “Home Depot is responding to a market need, which is builders and contractors and even some consumers coming into the store and saying, ‘I want this product for my LEED home, which of your products apply?’ That tells us that the LEED brand is starting to gain some traction, but it also tells us that consumers are starting to be a lot more aware.”

The online retail database is also an indication that players from all corners of the industry are starting to come together to find ways to quite literally drive the sustainability message into more homes.

“I think that’s the kind of the work that needs to happen,” Kredich says. “It’s got to be the retailer, the product manufacturer, the NGO like us, the utilities—everybody has to come together and make the message consistent so we can get consumers to start to care.”