International Green Construction Code Coming Soon

Since July, members of the International Code Council (ICC) have been meeting in cities around the country -- they were in Philadelphia last month -- to develop a new building code guideline that would change the way commercial buildings are constructed.

A recent press release stated that traditional commercial buildings consume about 40% of energy used and produce about the same in carbon emissions. Richard Weiland, CEO of ICC, said, “We believe the time has come for us to develop a code that will stand as a useful and credible regulatory framework for creating a greener commercial building stock."  This is how drafting the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) began.

The ICC will not be alone in the creation of this new code.  They will be joined by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), ASTM International as well as government representatives from Pennsylvania and California, the only state currently to have their own green building code, created in July of 2008.

The code’s first draft is anticipated sometime in the spring 2010 and will focus on traditional commercial buildings, additions, and alterations.  The code will likely address residential construction by referencing the ICC 700 National Green Building Standard that was created last year by the team of the ICC and the National Association of Home Builders.

Like many building projects, the IGCC is likely to stir up controversy when the first draft goes public.

"We'll have early adopters and early supporters, and we'll have people who are dead set against it," said Maureen Guttman, Pennsylvania's representative on the committee. She is executive director of the Governor's Green Government Council, the state's sustainability office.

Typically, building codes cover health, safety, and welfare issues to ensure a structure's reliability for use. A green building code -- which Gov. Rendell has called for in Pennsylvania -- does the same "from a more global perspective -- the health, safety, and welfare of the planet," Guttman said.

She foresees sustainable-building requirements following the same path, "particularly since it is so clearly shown that to build good, sustainable buildings is good business."

Now that the code is in the middle part of the drafting process, some major challenges have arisen.  One of those major challenges is how to formulate a code that is broadly applicable to all states and municipalities in the nation, yet is still able to address specific local climate and site conditions. “It’s a balancing act,” says SBTC member Anthony Floyd, AIA, manager of the Scottsdale, Arizona Green Building Program and chair of the committee’s site and land use working group. Many site issues are “beyond the scope of the traditional building code,” he says.

The next SBTC meeting will take place in Fort Meyers, Florida from December. 15^th-17^th.  Ravi Shah, Assoc. AIA, SBTC chair and an ICC board member says he’d like to see a construction code draft that is at least 80% complete by then.

For more information on the International Green Construction Code, visit the ICC website.

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