‘Green’ building codes and standards
By Ron George
President, Ron George Design & Consulting Services
Being green is very trendy these days. It seems like everyone wants to be “Green.” There was a little green frog that used to say, “It’s not easy being green.” It appears the frog was right. There has been such a frenzy associated with being perceived as “being green” that it has taken on a life of its own. The next generation is determined to be perceived as “eco-friendly” or “green” almost to a fault. Saving water, saving energy and reducing waste and reducing carbon emissions are excellent goals; however, they should not be done at the expense of health and safety. Many manufacturing companies are adjusting their marketing strategies away from promoting the technical aspects of their products and they seem to focusing on the environmental aspects of their products. Business cards have switched to green to portray an image of being green, product display booths have taken on green themes, yet many of the products are still exactly the same.
Not to be left in the dust, the model building code organizations and some standards writing organizations have jumped on the green bandwagon and several organizations seem to be in a race to develop a green code or standard.
There has been a lot of discussion about developing green standards, upgrading existing building codes to incorporate green requirements or standards and discussions about developing new green codes. The International Code Council (ICC) is working on a commercial green code, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) is working on a green supplement to the Uniform Codes, the American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) along with a couple of other organizations is working on a green standard for commercial green buildings and the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) are working on a residential green code with ICC.
The International Code Council is working on ‘Green Commercial Code’
The International Code Council announced on Earth Day that they were creating a new “green” commercial building code, which would be in line with the ICC's other building code products.
ICC is not the first organization to attempt to create a building-code friendly standard for green. ASHRAE convened a committee to develop Standard 189P in 2007. Draft 2 was a couple of years ago and it was Standard 189.1P and the most current draft is Proposed Standard 189.1, Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings. The intent was to provide minimum requirements for the design of sustainable buildings to balance environmental responsibility, resource efficiency, occupant comfort and well-being, and community sensitivity. Using USGBC’s LEED Green Building Rating System, which addresses the top 25% of building practice, as a key resource, Standard 189P will provide a baseline that will drive green building into mainstream building practices.
The American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) is working on ‘Green Standard’
ASHRAE 189.1 will be the nation's first standard for high-performance green buildings. The standard has been through three public review periods. The proposed ASHRAE Standard 189.1, titled “Standard for the Design of High Performance, Green Buildings except Low-Rise Residential Buildings" is being developed jointly by ASHRAE, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, and the U.S. Green Building Council. It is said this will be the first such green building standard in the United States. Comments on the draft standard were due on June 15.
After releasing a draft of the ASHRAE 189.1 standard in 2007, the American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers dissolved the original committee in late 2008, and reconstituted it at the beginning of 2009. There was a great deal of discussion that the committee was dissolved because major players did not have enough of a say in the development of the standard.
The ASHRAE Standard 189.1 addresses the following items:
1. Site sustainability, water use efficiency;
2. Energy efficiency;
3. Indoor environmental quality (IEQ);
4. The building’s impact on the atmosphere; and
5. Materials and resources.
These five key subject areas of ASHRAE 189.1, as well as plans for construction and high-performance operation, are each addressed in a separate chapter using the following format:
Sub-section 1 — General: This subsection includes a statement of scope and addresses other broad issues.
Sub-section 2 — Compliance Paths: This subsection indicates the compliance options for each section.
Sub-section 3 — Mandatory Provisions: This subsection contains the criteria that must be complied with by all projects (i.e. the criteria that cannot be traded off).
Sub-section 4 — Prescriptive Option: This subsection contains additional criteria specified in a manner that provides a simple way to show compliance that involves little or no calculations.
Sub-section 5 — Performance Option: This subsection contains an alternate way to show compliance that is typically based on equivalence to the Prescriptive Option.
It is intended that the new ASHRAE 189.1 standard be used in conjunction with ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007, and ASHRAE Standards 62.1-2007 and 55-2004. The standard is proposed to have requirements contained within the document and when the requirements supersede the requirements in the referenced standards the requirements shall apply. For all other design criteria, the project is to comply with the requirements in the referenced standards.
I understand the ASHRAE Standard 189.1 will be placed on continuous maintenance or revision schedule, permitting the standard to be updated through the publication of approved addenda to the standard. It is anticipated to be updated every third year with approved addenda and errata.
The ASHRAE Standard 189.1 should be an important document for the further promotion of high-performance green buildings in the United States and for reaching net-zero-energy consumption for new buildings. Standard 189.1P will be an ANSI-accredited standard that can be incorporated into building codes. It is intended that the standard will eventually become a prerequisite under LEED. ASHRAE 189.1 was scheduled to have a review of all of the comments to this Public Review Draft at the ASHRAE Annual Conference in Louisville in June of 2009. Stay tuned for information about the final draft.
International Association of Plumbing & Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) is developing Green Code Supplement as ‘green initiative’
The IAPMO Board of Directors recently established the two new committees. One is titled: Committee for Awareness and Understanding of a Sustainable Environment (C.A.U.S.E.) and the other is titled: Green Technical Committee (GTC) to identify opportunities to make the Uniform Codes more sustainable and achieve sustainability goals.
IAPMO C.A.U.S.E. Committee
The IAPMO C.A.U.S.E. Committee is composed of leading experts and code officials in the plumbing & mechanical industries and has IAPMO has taken immediate steps such as calling for a minimum 10 percent reduction in energy and water consumption in the Uniform Codes. It has also been reported that the C.A.U.S.E. group will be directing all of the environmental activities of IAPMO.
IAPMO Green Technical Committee
The Green Technical Committee (GTC) has met a couple of times and is in the process of developing a new Green Code supplement for the Uniform Codes. It is anticipated that the Green supplement should be ready for inclusion in the next round of code hearings in 2010. The GTC is comprised of a diverse group of experts in Green plumbing and mechanical fields. The committee is comprised of water and energy conservation authorities, plumbers, contractors, engineers, and code inspectors.
The GTC objectives include identifying opportunities to make the Uniform Codes more sustainable, and to develop a Green Plumbing and Mechanical Supplement.
The next IAPMO Green Technical Committee Meetings are scheduled to be held:
August 19 - 21, 2009 in Denver and November 17 - 19, 2009 in Chicago.
The National Association of Home Builders
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is in the process of developing an ANSI/ICC standard for residential green building, NAHB Green.
ICC codes are “consensus” based codes, so the process for developing the code involves:
- Convening a select drafting committee;
- Inviting public comment on the initial draft; and
- Placing the final draft into the ICC code development process.
Reports are that the residential green building code may address the common criticism of LEED and other green building standards that they are not designed to be incorporated into building codes, and that they are not specific enough to be used as legal platforms.
It’s not easy being green
It will be interesting to see how these different organizations develop green building codes and standards. Many observers have commented to me that it is easy to proclaim you have a green code or standard that will reduce water and energy consumption by a given percentage, but the organizations typically fall short on expertise to accomplish or draft language to address the technical and safety aspects that need to be addressed with the green initiatives.
There needs to be a checks and balances system between the “water and energy conservation” and “health and safety risks.” So far the conservation folks seem to be dominating the discussions and the committees.
Some examples of health and safety issues are when water flow rates are arbitrarily cut by various percentages. There appears to have been no research on reduced flow rates and the percentages are simply 10 percent increment reductions. When you have horizontal buildings with sparsely populated fixtures as are common in large manufacturing facilities they will begin to experience drain line transport problems (the inability of ultra low flow fixtures to move solids down the drain for long distances) which will lead to sewage backups and sewage overflows, mold growth, the spread of disease and bacteria throughout buildings from blocked drains caused by poor drain line transport. Another problem is with reduced shower flow rates on non-compensating type shower valves (including but not limited to older two-handled shower valves) and certain styles of thermostatic shower valves that are not designed to control flow rates at flows lower than 2.5 gallons per minute. Lower flows on shower heads will cause a significant increase in thermal shock and scalding incidents unless other, more precise hot water temperature control provisions are mandated. There are many other energy savings provisions for domestic water booster pumps in high-rise building and domestic hot water system designs in high rise buildings that could save great amounts of energy, but the first costs will be higher. Many of these design issues have not been addressed in the drafts and I hope to be invited to participate in some of these activities in the future, time permitting. The problem is many of these green plumbing codes and standards are being developed concurrently by different organizations by different people. It will be interesting to see how close or far apart the different codes and standards are when the final drafts are published.
I’m sure this will all work out in the end and the environmental and health & safety provisions will eventually work out to save water, save energy and save lives.
Until then, remember, “It is not easy being Green.”
Ron George is president of Ron George Design & Consulting Services. He is the former Chairman of the International Residential Plumbing & Mechanical Code Committee and he serves on the International Association of Plumbing & Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) Code interpretation Answers and Analysis Committee and the IAPMO Standards Council. He is active in Plumbing Code and Plumbing Product Standard development and consulting. His company specializes in plumbing, piping, fire protection and HVAC system design. He provides plumbing and mechanical code consulting, plumbing product standard consulting and forensic investigations and litigation support for plumbing and mechanical system failures. E-mail: rgdc@rongeorgedesign.com. Web site: www.rongeorgedesign.com.