Washington, D.C. – On August 16, 2022, U.S. President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, a broad package of economic policy changes including the largest ever investment in building efficiency, sustainable construction and distributed generation. The International Code Council worked with policymakers to support the provided resources. These resources will help communities update their energy codes, promote low-carbon construction materials, and encourage energy-efficient retrofits and distributed energy generation including solar thermal and small-scale wind.

Building upon last year’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act provides $1 billion to support jurisdictions seeking to adopt, update and improve the implementation of current energy codes. More specifically, the new legislation supports codes and standards or local amendments that meet or exceed the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), and zero-energy building codes, including codes and standards or local amendments that meet or exceed 2021 IECC’s net zero appendices.

The bill makes further historic investments in sustainable construction, including $250 million through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for work toward enhanced standardization for low-embodied carbon construction materials through environmental product declarations (EPDs), as well as assistance for the manufacturing industry to more widely use and validate EPDs. The EPA will receive an additional $100 million to work with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and General Services Administration (GSA) on expanded labeling with EPDs for low-carbon construction materials used in building and infrastructure projects. The GSA, DOT and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be provided with roughly $4.2 billion in funding to incentivize low-carbon material use in federally funded projects.

The Inflation Reduction Act further includes provisions to boost efficiency in both multi-family and single-family housing and extends tax credits for building efficiency, distributed generation, and energy storage (including through hydrogen as a medium). These provisions include a total of $9 billion in consumer-focused home energy rebate programs. An additional program would provide $1 billion for a new grant program to make the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-assisted housing more energy and water efficient, resilient, and sustainable. The Code Council will continue to engage with the Administration and Congress to support additional provisions for community resilience and to expand incentives that enable jurisdictions to meet climate goals through a range of energy sources.

“The Inflation Reduction Act makes historic investments to support U.S. communities seeking to update their building energy codes and to promote sustainable construction,” said Code Council Chief Executive Officer Dominic Sims, CBO. “These efforts will cut consumers’ energy bills, significantly curb building emissions, and kick-start the market for green construction materials. The Code Council looks forward to working with industry, as well as federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments to ensure that these investments and incentives are utilized to their fullest potential.”

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About the International Code Council   
The International Code Council is the leading global source of model codes and standards and building safety solutions. Code Council codes, standards and solutions are used to ensure safe, affordable and sustainable communities and buildings worldwide. 

Washington, D.C. – The International Code Council Board of Directors announced the committee members of the newly established Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). The goal of this committee is to increase DEI in the membership association while helping Code Council members diversify their own organizations and, ultimately, the building safety profession overall.

The committee will also support the Code Council’s Safety 2.0 program, by encouraging individuals representing a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds to consider careers in building safety.

In alignment with the Code Council’s guiding statement, the Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will research best practices, collect information from current and potential members to inform the committee’s recommendations and provide a list of these recommendations for the Code Council Board of Directors to consider.

“The Code Council encourages teamwork and innovation. It is in everyone’s best interest to acknowledge diversity as a way of addressing the critical shortage of building safety professionals,” said Code Council Board President Cindy Davis, CBO. “The individuals serving on this committee are dedicated to empowering our members with resources to engage new and underrepresented voices in the profession and continue to build a community of welcoming and belonging which drives shared success.”

View the list of committee appointees and learn more about the committee here.

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About the International Code Council
The International Code Council is the leading global source of model codes and standards and building safety solutions. Code Council codes, standards and solutions are used to ensure safe, affordable and sustainable communities and buildings worldwide.

Washington, D.C. – On Wednesday, July 27, 2022, the U.S. Senate passed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Plumbing Research Act as part of a broader legislative push to enhance U.S. economic competitiveness. The act directs NIST, working in concert with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to conduct research on premise plumbing systems to improve their safety, efficiency and resilience. The research will be coordinated among academia, the private sector, the International Code Council, and federal agencies. The Code Council, through its leadership role on the High-Performance Building Coalition, strongly supported this legislation’s advancement.

The NIST Plumbing Research Act will address the challenges surrounding the size of existing plumbing systems in the United States which were based on research conducted in the 1930s by NIST predecessor, the National Bureau of Standards. The current water piping in our communities is oversized, which decreases efficiency and has implications for water quality. New research from NIST will complement studies by the Code Council, already underway at the University of Miami, and other academic institutions in the U.S.

“The adoption and implementation of up-to-date building and plumbing codes are key to increasing the availability of clean water globally. The Code Council applauds Congressmen Cartwright and Tonko and Senator Duckworth for their leadership and commitment to improving the efficiency and safety of water systems in the United States,” said Matt Sigler, PMG Executive Director at the Code Council. “As an international leader in ensuring water quality and building safety, the Code Council looks forward to partnering with NIST, the EPA and others to develop next-generation codes and standards that will protect and modernize our plumbing infrastructure.”

The codes and standards developed by the Code Council have helped improve water safety and efficiency for decades. In particular, the International Plumbing Code (IPC) and International Green Construction Code (IgCC) are modern plumbing codes that set minimum requirements to safeguard public health, safety, and property, while conserving water resources.  The Code Council is in the beginning stages of developing a new American National Standard Institute (ANSI) plumbing pipe sizing standard (ICC 815). The new standard will take a worldwide approach to properly size water, sewer, and vent piping for residential, mixed-use, and institutional occupancies based on today’s plumbing fixtures and post-COVID-19 water usage patterns. It will also help conserve water and energy beyond the scope of current model codes and standards.

“Improving the efficiency and reliability of our nation’s plumbing systems is key in strengthening our infrastructure and ensuring Americans have access to safe, clean water,” Congressman Paul Tonko said. “I supported the NIST Plumbing Research Act that will take the needed steps to at last bring U.S. plumbing standards into the 21st century. I was proud to push for these research investments and, moving forward from this success, I’ll continue working alongside colleagues and advocates to modernize our water infrastructure and strengthen public health.”

“Plumbing Manufacturers International (PMI) applauds the passage of this important legislation which contains increased investments in scientific research and strong science, technology, engineering, and math education provisions to support U.S. global competitiveness,” said Kerry Stackpole, PMI CEO.  “The creation of a robust program for premise plumbing research at NIST will have a vital impact on homes, schools, and buildings across the nation by utilizing innovative technologies to significantly improve water efficiency, reliability, and reuse in our water systems.”

For more information, please visit the Code Council’s PMG webpage.

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About the International Code Council   
The International Code Council is the leading global source of model codes and standards and building safety solutions. Code Council codes, standards and solutions are used to ensure safe, affordable and sustainable communities and buildings worldwide.