All the Cool Green Building People will be in Memphis This Week

The process of updating the 2012 International Green Construction Code moves to Memphis this week.

The IgCC provides model code language, to be adopted by local governments as an overlay to existing codes to establish “baseline regulations for new and existing buildings related to energy conservation, water efficiency, building owner responsibilities, site impacts, building waste, and materials” and other matters.

It is surprising to some that adoption of the IgCC across the country has not been faster and broader. It may be that mandatory green building codes are controversial and fly in the face on the tenets of green building as voluntary stewardship of the Earth; which would explain the large market share that LEED has, as a voluntary third party green building rating system. But a better explanation may be that the IgCC needs to find its place among standards, rating systems and codes; which is a balancing act between the hard left environmental extremists and the conservative engineering based code officials? And that is what is going to happen in Memphis.

The ICC’s new cloud based code development system “cdpACCESS” will be used for the first time for offsite comments to the 2015 IgCC, but the action will be on the ground in Memphis.

Proposed IgCC changes submitted have been posted online since March 10th for public review. The changes will be heard at two Committee Action Hearings conducted April 27th through May 4th in Memphis. The hearings will also be webcast live.

There are more than 900 changes proposed ranging from clarifying confusing text to updating requirements to reflect the best science evolved since 2012. By way of example, one positive change is GC 159-14, being advanced by the National Asphalt Pavement Association, to revise IgCC section 408.2.4. Pervious and Permeable Pavement, to now refer only to permeable pavements defined as having an air void of at least 15% versus the current measure of a percolation rate of 2 gallons per minute per square foot. Recent research describes how permeable pavements can not only manage stormwater but also mitigate urban heat island effect due to the high air void nature.

NAPA is also proposing GC 156-14 to delete IgCC section 408.2.1 describing site hardscape material as having a solar reflectance value of not less than 0.30. This is significant because the IgCC mandates heat island mitigation for not less than 50% of site hardscape, including that the hardscape materials meet that requirement. Given the growing body of evidence of unintended consequences associated with reflective pavements and the potential negative impact they may have on energy usage, it is time ICC members accept the code may have gotten ahead of the science and be prepared to eliminate provision.

The results of the hearing (to accept, reject or accept with modifications) each IgCC change proposal, will be posted online. A public comment period will then be conducted until July 16, 2014, where any member of the public may provide written comments.

Public Comment Hearings will be held in Ft. Lauderdale between October 1 and 7, 2014.  Voting on the final action on the public comments will be done by governmental ICC members both at the hearing and for a two week period afterward with cdpACCESS.

The resulting document, the 2015 IgCC will be released for use in the calendar year 2015 and will offer a more robust and greener Green Construction Code.

Article by Stuart Kaplow, appearing courtesy Green Building Law Update.