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National green building code moving forward
November 19, 2008
by Jim Brubaker, Minnesota Real Estate Journal
The U.S. Green Building Council has stood by its commitment to developing Standard 189.1 P, the national standard that will serve as the nation's green building code once completed.
Intended to be adopted by states, localities and other building code jurisdictions ready to require a minimum level of green building, Standard 189.1 P is being developed as an ANSI standard under ASHRAE's leadership in conjunction with IESNA and the U.S. Green Building Council.
"As green building goes mainstream, government leaders are asking for tools that set minimum standards for green building," Jason Hartke, Director of advocacy and public policy for the U.S. Green Building Council, said. "Standard 189 will be an important part of that toolkit."
Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles already have programs in place that require commercial buildings to attain LEED Silver certification and the state of California authored and adopted a statewide green building code this year.
The U.S. Green Building Council hopes that their standard will be adopted nationwide. The standard was feared to be in jeopardy in late October when the volunteer committee responsible for the code was reconstituted. The U.S. Green Building Council admits that it will cause delays but is confident that a final result will be reached.
"USGBC is deeply committed to our work with ASHRAE and to the integrity of the standard's content," Brendan Owens, VP of LEED Technical Development, USGBC, and a member of the Standard 189.1 P, said. "Creating a national green building code is imperative to our mission of market transformation, and we will be 100% engaged to make sure it delivers on that promise."
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