As public support for green buildings grows across the country it is increasingly important that our standards and codes not be balkanized state to state or city to city.  With this in mind, a remarkable partnership has coalesced that includes the International Code Council (ICC), the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE),  the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES), and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The  outcome of this partnership is the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) which provides a common vehicle for jurisdictions pursuing green building goals- the first of its kind in the nation.  The IGCC includes the recently completed ASHRAE Standard 189.1 (for High Performance, Green Buildings) as a compliance path.  Urban Green played its own small part in this process by managing a 30+ person task force to collect public comments on the drafts of Standard 189.1- with the result that our community provided more comments on those drafts than any other.

The IGCC is equally important and we encourage anyone in our community with the technical skills and familiarity with codes required to review the proposed document and provide public comment.  It’s a critically important part of the process.  You can find the steps to get involved here.