Codes discussion has become more prevalent today than ever before. To some, codes make life difficult and projects more expensive. To others, codes are a necessary device to ensure the delivery of safe, reliable or even high performance buildings. Even today, there are still many parts of the country (over a dozen states and even more cities and towns) that don’t require buildings to meet comprehensive code requirements. All of this may soon change.

First among the headline grabbers is ASHRAE’s Standard 189.1 for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings. After four years of development, ASHRAE and the USGBC have delivered the first code intended to become a commercial green-building standard for use across the United States. Think of it as a version of LEED translated into a codified language that can be easily adopted by local, state or even federal government entities. According to Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chairman of the USGBC, this effort and others will help to raise the ‘floor’ of building practices so that the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) can continue to raise the bar regarding LEED’s requirements. 

But not so fast ASHRAE. What about California, which has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to energy conservation and green building innovation? While California is included in the list of more than thirty states that require all of their publically funded building projects to achieve LEED certification, the state is really leading in terms of code requirements for the private sector. The recently adopted CALGREEN Green Building Standards Code is the “first-in-the nation” mandatory green building standards code. Independent of LEED requirements, this new code requires reduced water consumption and energy use in addition to many other “LEED-like” provisions. The above hyperlinked press release form the Governor’s office addresses the potential for resistance to the “new” requirements by revealing that “many of the mandatory provisions in this code are already part of the statewide building code,” meaning that much of this green code should be familiar to those involved in design and construction in the state. 

Another green code initiative you may have read about is being developed by the International Code Council. The International Green Construction Code, which is still under development, incorporates ASHRAE 189.1. With recent support coming from ASHRAE, the USGBC and Illuminating Engineering Society, a preliminary version of this code seeking to foster “national consistency in sustainability construction,” was released in March with a final version slated for release in 2012.