A More Accurate Description of the International Green Construction Code
On Friday, I read a press release by the USGBC and blogged about the new International Green Construction Code (ICCG). In my haste to avoid the traffic from the SEC Basketball Tourney in downtown Nashville, I quickly posted and jumped into my car to escape. With all candor, my post was incomplete . . . I did not hit the bull's eye!
This morning, I received a kind tweet from @AIAStateAffairs, the arm of AIA that supports government and community relations. According to the AIA, here is a link to the more complete story. Some of the more important facts and dates include the following:
- The public version of the ICCG will be available today.
- The public and AIA Members will be able to submit comments on the document through May 14, 2010.
- In mid-August, comments will be considered in public hearings, with a view toward the issuance of an updated version of the code in early November.
- Another round of hearings will be held in May, 2011 with the final action hearing occurring in the fall of 2011.
- The final version of the code will be published in 2012.
According to the AiA article, architects must advocate for adoption of the IGCC as it is revised by building officials during the next stages of the code development process. When the first public version of the IGCC is published in 2012, states and municipalities will be able to use the IGCC as a baseline for their own sustainable construction codes. The IGCC is written in mandatory, legally enforceable language, which is unlike voluntary green building rating systems. Finally, the IGCC includes post-occupancy building commissioning, as well as prescriptive versus performance-based metrics.
@AIAStateAffairs, thanks for the sending me a note!
