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The first meeting of the Consensus Committee charged with creating National Green Building Standards occurred April 19 – 20th at NAHB Headquarters in Washington, DC. NAHB, the International Code Council (ICC) and the NAHB Research Center have initiated a process for the development of an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard for green home building construction practices. The entire process, from the formation of a consensus committee to public review and final ANSI approval, is expected to be completed by the end of 2008. The result will be a voluntary green home building standard that can be adopted by local green home building programs or local building departments as a conformance guide. This standard will provide a common benchmark for recognizing and rewarding green residential design, development, and construction practices in a manner that is transparent, verifiable, and meaningful to builders, product manufacturers, and consumers.
Dave Shepherd from the Portland Cement Association and Gregg Borchelt from the Brick Industry Association specifically represent the cement based industries on the committee. At the first National Green Building Standards Development Meeting Public Hearings Consensus Committee Orientation, the committee reviewed the Working Draft of the National Green Building Standard™, and the various task groups were given direction. The Task Groups spent the remainder of the two-day meeting working on their particular assignments. These task groups include:
1. Administration and Points
2. Site Development and Global Impact
3. Resource Efficiency and Owner Education
4. Water Efficiency and Indoor Environmental Quality
5. Energy Efficiency
6. Multifamily
7. Remodeling
According to Rob Pickett of the Building Systems Councils, Systems Builder members who are educated about green building can gain significant advantages simply for the way they normally do business. “By integrating a few more ‘green’ elements (e.g., site management, home owner education), [they] would be primed for green certification. Members can enable builders by providing information in a formal document that fully describes all of the green aspects of the product when it arrives at the site.”
The next committee meeting is scheduled for July 9-13 at NAHB in Washington, DC. Task Group conference calls are scheduled for each Monday afternoon between now and June 8 having all work completed in the allocated time.
Every BSC member is provided an opportunity to participate in the standard development process by attending the open committee meetings. BSC members can also submit comments during a public review process that will take place later in the year, which the BSC will coordinate with the full membership.
Through ongoing communication with the committee, the BSC staff is actively working with the NAHB Green Building Staff to ensure that systems-built housing is represented in this process. For questions, please visit the NAHB Research Center Green Building Standards website www.nahbrc.org/gbstandard |