International Green Construction Code

“At Hines, we specialize in Class A space, and we’ve reached the point where clients don’t think its Class A unless it’s green.”

Jerry Lea, Hines Executive Vice President

Quoted, Forbes March 18, 2012

International Green Construction Code: Disruptive By Design

“The biggest change to green building since LEED”

I received a number of requests for copies of my presentation of earlier this week that was timed to coincide with the release of the new International Green Construction Code 2012™ and in response I decided to publish my prepared remarks.

This week the International Code Council will release the new 2012 version of the International Green Construction Code, the biggest change to green building since LEED®. As such I suggest it is fitting today to talk about the emergence of green standards, green rating systems, and green codes.

This talk will put that new code in context, explaining green standards including ASHRAE 90.1 and ASHRAE 189.1, rating systems including Energy Star and LEED, and codes including the International Energy Conservation Code to the International Green Construction Code.

This talk will do much more than simply explain the difference between standards, rating systems and green building codes, it will offer practical solutions and real world opportunities. And to that end, addressing ‘the’ hottest topic in green building today, this talk will highlight the emergence of the International Green Construction Code (the IgCC) and the relationship with LEED.

I believe, unabashedly, that the governmental responses to the consequences of global climate change will be unevenly distributed, and this talk is about creating opportunities for you to make money.

Junk science or not

Let me be clear, this has nothing to do with whether or not you believe in the science of global warming. This has nothing to do with whether or not you can calculate your carbon footprint.

Demand for green building

This is about the real estate business; about market demand. Demand for green building remains strong. McGraw Hill Construction reported that nationwide more than 35% of new nonresidential construction activity in 2011 was green. There continues to be strong market data showing both significant effective rental premiums and also much faster absorption, as well as higher sale prices per square foot, for green building versus comparable non green.

Rising energy prices, government incentives, and enhanced brand image are regularly identified as motivators driving green building to an ever larger market share in 2012.

We now know that buildings have a surprisingly large impact on the natural environment. With energy use being the source of some 70% of Greenhouse Gas emissions and buildings representing up to 48% of total energy use, controlling building energy use is key not only to reducing building operating costs, but also to advantaging the environment.

Controlling building energy use is the only method of reducing GHG emissions that is currently cost effective or is likely to be so into the near to mid future. And green building is the means to that end. It is well documented that green buildings can reduce energy use by up to 50%, reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 39%, use as much as 40% less potable water, and can eliminate 70% of solid waste.

But there remains no single accepted definition of green building. The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED voluntary third party rating system is by far the most widely utilized standard for green building in this country and arguably the now nationally accepted benchmark, if not the dominant green building program in the world. LEED, the acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, gave us the words and the terms to articulate what a green building is. LEED is so widely accepted in our lexicon it is hard to believe LEED has only existed for 11 years. We will return to LEED in a minute. But let’s take a chronological look, pre LEED.

Government regulating building is not new. The Code of Hammurabi from Babylon circa 1790 B.C. was among the first building codes. Anyone who complains about the penalties in today’s codes is not familiar with King Hammurabi’s edict, “If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then the builder shall be put to death.”

There was regulation of building in North America from the time of the Plymouth Colony, but the first modern building code was adopted in New York City on June 20, 1916. It was adopted 6 years after the Triangle Shirtwaste factory fire and required one stairwell for each 2,500 square feet of floor area.

With that background, because we only have an hour, let’s leap ahead. Today we have green standards including ASHRAE 90.1 and ASHRAE 189.1, rating systems including Energy Star and LEED, and codes including the International Energy Conservation Code to the International Green Construction Code.

Standards

Standards are most simply a consensus document developed and published to define minimum values of acceptable performance. ASHRAE (formerly, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, but since its annual meeting earlier this year known only by its acronym) develops standards for the refrigeration processes and the design and maintenance of indoor environments.

ASHRAE Standard 90.1 provides minimum requirements for the energy efficient design of buildings. ASHRAE Standard 189.1 provides a “total building sustainability package” to design, build and operate green buildings. From site location to energy use to recycling, this standard establishes how to build a green building. And if there is a surprise take away from today, it is not “plastics” but rather 189.1.

In response to the mandate of the Defense Authorization Act for 2012 that the military not expend defense department dollars pursuing LEED Gold or Platinum, the Department of Defense told Congress on March 7th that it will no longer pursue LEED certification, but rather all new construction, major renovations and leased space acquisitions will beginning later this year be constructed to the 189.1 standard, as customized for Department of Defense use and at thresholds equivalent to LEED Silver.

Moreover, USGBC announced a Build Better Codes campaign the very next day on March 8th where it advocates local jurisdictions adopt mandatory green codes, specifically calling for the use of 189.1 as a mandatory green building code through the jurisdictional compliance option when the local enacts the IgCC.

Codes

Codes are the law. Think the International Building Code. The fire code weighted emphasis of building codes remains today.

IBC Sec 101.3 provides, ” The purpose of this code is to establish the minimum requirements to safeguard the public health, safety and general welfare through structural strength, means of egress facilities, stability, sanitation, adequate light and ventilation, energy conservation, and safety to life and property from fire and other hazards attributed to the built environment and to provide safety to fire fighters and emergency responders during emergency operations.”

The International Code Council (the ICC folks) develop more than just a building code, and have gone far beyond the traditional life safety role of codes. The ICC also developed the International Energy Conservation Code, encouraging energy conservation through efficiency in envelope design, mechanical systems, and lighting systems. The IECC 2009 is being widely adopted across this country because a commitment to adopt it was a precondition to states receiving ARRA Stimulus funds from the federal government.

And the ICC developed the International Green Construction Code that we will delve into in a few minutes.

I would be remiss if I did not also make you are aware that the National Association of Home Builders’ ICC 700 is offered as another compliance option for low rise residential construction when locals enact the IgCC.

And then there are the rating systems

The U.S. EPA’s Energy Star program has developed energy performance rating systems for buildings. These ratings, on a scale of 1 to 100, provide a means for benchmarking the energy efficiency of specific buildings against the energy performance of similar buildings. Using Energy Star Portfolio Manager, a building owner can determine how energy efficient his building is.

The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED is a green building certification system, providing third-party verification thru the private Green Building Certification Institute that a building was designed and built using specific strategies aimed at improving performance.

Comparing standards, codes and rating systems

The hot topic in the real estate world today is the dynamic tension in green building between the IgCC and LEED.

California enacted the first mandatory statewide green building code. CalGreen became mandatory January 1, 2011. Maryland became the first state to adopt the IgCC last year effective March 2012. It is not mandatory in Maryland. The state enabled local jurisdictions to adopt the IgCC as a voluntary compliance path.

And with local variations, the IgCC has been adopted in Rhode Island, Oregon, and cities from Richland, Washington and Boyton Beach, Florida to Keen, New Hampshire, Phoenix, Arizona and more.

LEED will survive and thrive

The environmental industrial complex makes the case that it’s not a choice between green building codes or the voluntary “above code” LEED green building rating system. Baseline building codes and the third party rating systems, like LEED, work together. The IgCC establishes the floor of what green building is, while LEED is at the ceiling, with the freedom to go further and raise that ceiling higher, blazing new trails toward net zero energy building and onto a truly regenerative future.

Make no mistake, today with more than 1.8 Billion square feet of LEED certified building and USGBC now certifying more than 1.6 Million square feet a day, even with the advent of the IgCC, the LEED brand is here to stay.

Moreover, many government programs, including GSA new construction are tied to LEED.

Having already changed the culture of the real estate industry, it is the aim of some inside USGBC that LEED be smaller in terms of number of projects and return to 25% of new construction starts, “the market penetration expected and desired for the system.” The daft LEED 2012 articulates that smaller 25% market share, all be it a greener top of the market.

Those who suggest the IgCC will result in significant reduction in market share for LEED are wrong, missing that green building is so fast growing that such would be akin to King Canute seated on his throne on the seashore commanding the tides of the sea to go back.

However, the lines of demarcation are not yet clear. USGBC opposed the Maryland bill enabling use of the IgCC in that state, despite that the introduction and enactment of the legislation was an advocacy effort of the USGBC Maryland chapter.

The IgCC

All of that said, there is room for the IgCCC. The IgCC is a collaborative effort of the ICC, the USGBC, the AIA, ASTM International, ASHRAE, and the Illuminating Engineering Society.

The IgCC will be administered by local code officials as an overlay on existing construction and energy codes in the ICC codes family (including the International Building Code and International Energy Conservation Code).

The IgCC is available for download at www.iccsafe.org.

The IgCC provides model code language, to be adopted by local governments as an overlay to existing codes working in tandem with the administrative requirements of other adopted codes, to establish minimum and advanced levels of “baseline regulations for new and existing buildings related to energy conservation, water efficiency, building owner responsibilities, site impacts, building waste, and materials”.

By way of example the IgCC version 2012 requires energy performance must be 30% better than the minimum requirements of the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code. .. versus the LEED 2009 prerequisite, that energy cost be 10% lower that the baseline in a whole building simulation per ASHRAE 90.1 -2007.

The overlay code requires that plumbing fixture and fitting flow rates be reduced by 20% compared to the current International Plumbing Code. .. versus the LEED 2009 prerequisite, that is nearly identical, that plumbing fixture flow rates be reduced by 20% compared to the 2006 International Plumbing Code.

The IgCC also mandates commissioning and Table 903.1 lists pre and post (where selected by the jurisdiction) occupancy requirements well beyond only mechanical systems.

Using Table 302.1 in the IgCC, governments can ramp up or require enhanced performance in many areas, including more stringent material resource and indoor environmental quality provisions and enhanced energy and water performance.

Additionally, each government enacts the IgCC indicating a number between zero and 14 as the minimum number of project electives, from the list of 60 electives in Table 303.1, including Brownfield redevelopment, reducing light pollution, use of non-potable water, and others, that must be complied with by each project.

The future

The IgCC is an adoptable, useable and enforceable code that will raise the floor of green building (above a traditional building code), but not reach the level of LEED as that voluntary rating system raising the ceiling.

Very appealing is that (unless a local government elects otherwise) as a construction code, the IgCC offers certainty at the time of permit issuance and concluding when construction is complete with final inspections (i.e., none of the vagueness of a third party approval, no post construction energy and water usage reporting, no possibility of decertification, etc.) and none of the politics of the LEED FSC only certified wood.

As USGBC finalizes LEED 2012, the 3rd public comment period is ending tomorrow, on March 27th on the next version of LEED (scheduled to be balloted later this year), pushing the envelope with higher thresholds for energy reduction and the like, raising the ceiling; LEED will be even more appealing to many in that top 25% of the market.

The IgCC will result in more green buildings, including significantly, more of those buildings pursuing LEED certification.

Gain a competitive advantage

Beyond simply an effort to capture the dollars available in advantaging this market segment, many believe that a voluntary, non mandatory approach to environmental protection is the best hope for stewardship of our planet; hence the broad brand and wide market share acceptance of LEED.

Many land owners also believe that burdening owners of terra firma with yet another government mandate is wrong and will not be efficacious. The government enactment of the IgCC as a voluntary option for developers of the land (as adopted in Maryland) is admittedly not a pure voluntary market driven effort, but seeks to strike a balance trending toward stewardship of our planet through voluntary green building.

The market shift to green building has been dramatic and a bright spot in an otherwise tough economy.

Green building will soon be the norm and anything else will be substandard.

This has nothing to do with whether or not you believe in global warming. This is about the real estate business; about market demand. This is about creating opportunities for you and for your clients and customers.

How do you take advantage of those opportunities? Today, when you leave here, order a copy of the IgCC; it is published together with 189.1. This is the biggest change to green building since LEED. And if I can assist you in navigating between LEED, the IgCC and 189.1 do not hesitate to give me a call. Thank you.