by Brianna Crandall — March 9, 2015—Several leading associations that develop codes and standards to create green buildings are collaborating to align the International Green Construction Code (IgCC), ANSI/ASHRAE/IES/USGBC Standard 189.1, Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, and the USGBC Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building program.
The initiative is being welcomed by code officials, architects, engineers and contractors as it is expected to ensure a streamlined, effective set of regulatory and above-code options for jurisdictions across the country. The move is expected to serve as a major impetus for an increase in environmentally friendly structures with a reduced carbon footprint and decreased energy consumption.
“In just a few years we progressed from developing the first model code for green buildings to a new cooperative document that will make it easier for owners, designers, builders and code officials to deliver sustainable, high-performing buildings,” said International Code Council (ICC) Chief Executive Officer Dominic Sims, CBO. “Thank you to our cooperating sponsors, ICC Members and all who participate in the development of the International Green Construction Code for their support.”
Cooperating sponsors in the development of the IgCC are ASHRAE, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES), and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). All have agreed to collaborate on the development of the next edition of the IgCC, Standard 189.1 and the LEED green building program.
Standard 189.1 will continue to be produced as an American National Standards Institute consensus standard and then delivered to ICC to wrap in to its code-compliance frame and position it for adoption as a building code by states and municipalities.
The technical content of the IgCC will consist of the mandatory, prescriptive and performance-based requirements developed for Standard 189.1; an updated standard will be produced every three years to complement the three-year code cycle.
“This partnership leverages the unique strengths of world-class organizations collaborating in an unprecedented way,” said USGBC Chief of Engineering Brendan Owens. “Building designers and operators know the benefits of integrated design and planning very well—we’ve taken our cue from them and will create a system where the whole is substantially more effective than the sum of its individual parts.”
