A Codes Retrospective: With IgCC’s Arrival, Jurisdictions Can Now Raise the Floor with this Important New Regulatory Tool

Jeremy Sigmon, LEED® AP BD+C
Manager, Building Codes Advocacy
U.S. Green Building Council

Today is an important day for USGBC and for green building. It marks the culmination of more than six years of work to turn a crazy idea into a tangible, attainable reality.

Today, the nation’s leading code developer, which emerged from the legacy regional code bodies, has published a model green building code. The International Green Construction Code (IgCC) was developed by almost everybody and, importantly, approved by the Code Council’s membership of code officials. It includes the second fully-published version of a green building standard that USGBC dreamed up with ASHRAE at Greenbuild in November of 2005.

Today we also celebrate the 12,000th LEED certified commercial building, totaling more than 8.4 billion square feet of LEED certified space, and the beginning of a final stage of development of LEED's next version. After nearly 20,000 comments during three rounds of public review, today begins the effort to respond and fine-tune LEED 2012 prior to member ballot this summer.

I’d like to travel back to that early moment in 2005 when the crazy idea of a green building code was first conceived. At that time, dozens (soon-to-be hundreds) of local governments were searching for a prescriptive, code-intended tool that could extend protections from the human and environmental health risks illuminated by greener building practice. LEED was taking off at an amazing trajectory, and new rating systems were under development for both homes and core & shell buildings to add to the LEED suite of new construction, existing buildings and commercial interiors rating systems.

Campaigning for Better Building Codes

Matt Pearce
Campaign Specialist
U.S. Green Building Council

Earlier this month, USGBC launched our seventh and final campaign of the 2012 Advocacy Campaign Agenda: Build Better Codes. In this campaign, USGBC is calling on its community to actively engage in the greening of state and local building codes.

Building codes define a state or community’s minimum expectations for all buildings. As such, this campaign to build better, greener codes plays an important role in enabling market transformation towards a market norm of healthy, low-impact, responsible and efficient buildings and neighborhoods.

USGBC and many of its partners have long been active in developing a response to the demand for regulatory guidance for better, greener buildings. Building energy codes have filled some of the void, but fall far short of addressing the much broader spectrum of building-related risks to human and environmental health. State and local governments across the country will get their wish next week when the 2012 version of the International Green Construction Code (IgCC) is released. The IgCC, which includes ASHRAE Standard 189.1 as an optional path to compliance, serves to provide any code adopting body with the today’s best-available starting point for extending the benefits of green buildings to all buildings designed, built or renovated in a community.

With all this new material for code adopting bodies to consider – and many already are – USGBC’s Build Better Codes campaign calls on the full community of green building professionals to coach these codes from idea into reality. I hope you’ll join us in our effort to Build Better Codes.