The New NAHB/ICC Green Building Standarads are out

[Dick Seibert]

About 8 months ago I started a thread about LEED greeen building costing 29% more than conventional construction in energy consumption, Mike (the moderator) asked that green building not be brought up in Building Science, and I agree since green building certainly isn't science, so I've posted this in Trade Talk.

As a way of countering the USGBC's LEED green building program the NAHB and the ICC got together and have written their own standards, if adopted by your AHJ they become code in your area, It is available here for purchase. With tears in my eyes I've poured through some of it, and have to wonder what the NAHB is thinking, here is a description (this not California's program that I've been complaining about forcing high formaldehyde products in buildings and costing *me* a $100,000 in one home, this is the national standard to be adopted in your area- if you don't fight it.

In 2007 the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the International Code Council (ICC) partnered to form to establish a much-needed and nationally-recognizable standard definition of what is meant by "Green Building."

A consensus committee was formed to develop this standard in compliance with the requirements of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The resulting ANSI approved ICC-700-2008 National Green Building Standard defines green building for single and multifamily homes, residential remodeling projects and site development projects while still allowing for the flexibility required for regionally-appropriate best green practices.

Similar to the NAHB Model Green Homebuilding Guidelines, a builder, remodeler or developer must incorporate a minimum number of features in the following areas: energy, water, and resource efficiency, lot and site development, indoor environmental quality, and home owner education. The more points accrued, the higher the score.

The Standard, however, includes more mandatory items and suggests that higher thresholds be met in several categories. A new threshold - "Emerald" - was added to denote the highest achievement in residential green construction. The following tables highlight the point values required in each area for green buildings and subdivisions.

And here are a few snippets for those who don't want to "invest in it".

I402.3.4.1 Vegetation and soil protection. During construction on a building site, where portions of a site are not being disturbed; where existing vegetation is being retained and where portions of a site are restricted from development by Section 402.2, vegetation and soil protection zones (VSPZ) shall be established complying with the following:

1. The VSPZ shall be designed such that construction impacts from overall site development shall not decrease the capacity of the VSPZ to support the desired vegetation. Construction activities outside of the VSPZ shall not change drainage patterns or affect the microclimate within the VSPZ.

2. VSPZ shall be protected with a fence or other physical barrier that cannot be easily that protects the VSPZ during construction from the movement or parking of equipment, the storage of materials, and other similar construction activities. Where appropriate to the area, fencing which is wildlife permeable shall be provided.

VSPZ can encompass one plant or can include several plants in a group. VSPZ boundaries for trees shall extend out from the trunk, to a distance of 2 feet radius, measured at ground level, per inch of diameter at breast height or the full lateral extent of the actual root system as determined by ground-penetrating radar. VSPZ boundaries for shrubs shall extend out from the stem of the shrub to twice the radius of the shrub. VSPZ boundaries for herbaceous vegetation shall extend to encompass the diameter of the plants.[/color][/color]4. No more than 10 percent of the total area of the VSPZ can contain development. Only minimal impact site development is allowed within the VSPZ.

5. On-going management activities to protect the integrity of the VSPZ shall be included in the site maintenance plans.

603.1.1.2 Calculated annual output emissions associated with on-site electricity use. Annual indirect emissions from site electricity use shall be produced by multiplying the calculated site electricity use regulated by this code by a transmission and distribution line loss factor of 1.07 using the appropriate eGRID sub-region “total” output emission rate from the most recent edition of EPA eGRID (http://www.epa.gov/egrid). Citations to eGRID output emission rates shall include the eGRID (e.g., eGRID2007), version number and date of the cited table. This calculation shall be performed for the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) and these emissions values shall be combined into a carbon dioxide equivalent using the global warming potentials from the IPCC second assessment report (SAR), which are 1 for CO2, 21 for CH4, and 320 for N2O.

603.1.1.3 Calculated annual output emissions associated with on-site nonrenewable fuels use. On-site conversions of nonrenewable fuels shall use emissions factors in EPA’s mandatory reporting rule for greenhouse gases (http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissi ... aking.html), or, if no appropriate factor exists in the mandatory reporting rule, in EPA’s compilation of air pollutant emissions factors (AP42) (http://www.epa.gov/ttnchie1/ap42/).

Comments from building insectors range from "How in the world are we going to enforce this" to "America better wake up, this is totalitarianism".

[Dancing Dan]

Yeah, looks like Nazi Germany to me too, running your house thru an energy model and minimizing disturbance to the site.

And what's the source for your statistic in the first sentence? The three LEED-rated I've done have all out-performed their energy models, including the most recent, which had a HERS rating of 41.

[Dick Seibert]

Dan:

The 29% was the subject of that entire thread linked above, it was from Henry Gifford's study, supported by Lstiburek.

An example of one inspector's comments:

OMG!

How would a building department ever gear up to review and enforce this! For example, potable water may only be used for the first 1 to three years to establish grass, plants and trees. Are BO's going to diary all new buildings to confirm the potable irrigation is disconnected at the required time.

Section 904.1 MANDATES inspections by the design professional of record. We can't require that even for life safety aspects of the code.

5 percent HOV parking and 5 percent hybrid parking?????

What a scary attack on buildings and individual freedoms.