-By Adam Figman

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the International Code Council (ICC), the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES) have announced the launch of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC), a set of standards intended to facilitate and accelerate the construction of green buildings in the United States. Public Version 1.0 of the IGCC was unveiled yesterday (March 15) at the ICC’s office in Washington, D.C.

This launch represents the combination of two national movements to create enforceable green building codes in the U.S.: one, by the ICC and ASHRAE, who have been trying to develop an industry standard with green building for decades, and one by the Washington, D.C.-based USGBC, who has been involved in a similar effort centered around the LEED Green Building Rating System since LEED was introduced in 2000. The IGCC merges the ICC’s impact in all 50 states (and its 22,000 jurisdictions) with the technical abilities of ASHRAE, the IES, and the USGBC.

"Just like with the LEED rating systems, the IGCC code is meant to bring greater inclusivity and flexibility to green building,” says Marie Coleman, USGBC spokesperson. “This code will allow jurisdictions to adopt green building guidelines in a streamlined, systematic manner that also fits the individual needs of a city or municipality.”

The introduction of the IGCC also includes the unveiling of ANSI/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1, Standard for the Design of High Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, which does to energy efficiency and water use what the codes do for structural safety. Written by industry experts, Standard 189.1 also covers criteria including indoor environmental quality, materials and resource use, and the building’s effect on its site and community.

Along with the organizations listed above, the American Institute of Architects and the American Society for Testing Materials are listed as co-authors of the new construction code. As of yesterday, Standard 1891.1 and the IGCC are both available for distribution, with the intent of helping designers and architects nationwide contribute to a sustainable future.

Within a year, however, the ICC is expecting to update these codes.

“This is a building block,” says Coleman. “The partnering organizations want to ensure IGCC is continuously evolving. The next iteration, IGCC 2.0, will be released late 2010 pending a public comment period in the coming months. And then another version will be released in 2012 to elicit more opportunities for increased performance. As technology evolves and the urgency for better energy and water use, better environmental quality throughout the built environment grows over time, so will this set of codes.”ýýý