by Brianna Crandall — August 22, 2014—The International Code Council (ICC), global technology society ASHRAE, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES), and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced on August 21 the signing of a memorandum to collaborate on synchronizing the following regulatory and voluntary green building tools:
- ANSI/ASHRAE/IES/USGBC Standard 189.1, Standard for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings;
- the International Green Construction Code (IgCC); and
- the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building program.
The “unprecedented” cooperation aims to create a comprehensive framework for jurisdictions looking to implement and adopt green building regulations and codes and/or provide incentives for voluntary leadership programs such as LEED.
The agreement outlines the development, maintenance and implementation of new versions of Standard 189.1 and IgCC, which will be combined into one regulatory tool. This agreement also endeavors to align the LEED program with the new code to ensure a streamlined, effective set of regulatory and above-code options for jurisdictions across the country.
The leaders of the five organizations expect the agreement to “lead to more rapid adoption of responsible approaches by designers, builders, developers and a host of other building industry groups.” They expect the alignment of both regulatory and voluntary tools to reduce the current fragmentation of compliance documents for users who are pressing toward a more sustainable environment.
“This landmark agreement will leverage the unique strengths of each of the five partner organizations to deliver a coordinated, integrated suite of green building tools: an ANSI standard as the basis of a regulatory code to push the market and a rating system to pull the market higher,” said Brendan Owens, Vice President, LEED, and U.S. Green Building Council. “We are collectively dedicated to advancing green building practices and to advancing the broader industry’s understanding about the importance of green building goals and how to achieve them.”
