ASHRAE Joins NAHB and ICC to Develop New National Green Building Standard

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), building science society ASHRAE and the International Code Council (ICC), developers of the ICC Family of Codes for the built environment, today agreed to jointly develop the 2015 edition of the ICC/ASHRAE 700 National Green Building Standard. This is the third edition of the standard and the first time that ASHRAE has partnered on its development.

“ASHRAE’s participation is welcome news for the home building industry,” said NAHB Chairman Kevin Kelly, a home builder and developer in Wilmington, Del. “This cements the position of the National Green Building Standard as the preeminent green standard for residential construction.”

In 2007, NAHB and ICC convened a consensus committee of home builders, code officials, product manufacturers, building science and energy-efficiency specialists and governmental representatives to develop the standard. It was approved in 2009 by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as the first green standard for residential construction, development and remodeling. Since then, the National Green Building Standard has helped define and advance sustainable home building, remodeling and development – a sector expected to represent as much as a third of the market by 2016.

Now known as the ICC 700 National Green Building Standard (NGBS), it was updated in 2012 by a subsequent consensus committee and again approved by ANSI. NGBS has been used to certify more than 32,000 single- and multifamily homes and residential developments for reaching its established benchmarks for energy, water and resource efficiency, indoor environmental quality, home owner education and site development.

“As one of the nation’s leading societies for building technology, ASHRAE brings years of experience and knowledge to the table, particularly in the areas of indoor environmental quality and energy efficiency,” said ICC Board President Stephen Jones, CBO, and CEO Dominic Sims, CBO, in a joint statement. “ASHRAE’s welcome involvement will help position the ICC/ASHRAE 700 National Green Building Standard even further ahead as the leading consensus standard in the industry.”

Applications to serve on the NGBS consensus development committee are open through April 6. That’s also the deadline to submit proposals to update or amend the new edition. The application and the proposal submission forms can be found at www.homeinnovation.com/ngbs, the website for the Home Innovation Research Labs, which again is serving as secretariat, or administrator, for the standard development process.

“ASHRAE is pleased to stand beside NAHB and ICC as a co-sponsor of ICC/ASHRAE 700,” ASHRAE President Bill Bahnfleth said. “This collaborative agreement provides a path forward for ASHRAE to contribute its technical and standards expertise to support one of the most important sectors of the built environment – our homes. We look forward to this joint effort to promote sustainability in the residential sector.”

About ICC: The International Code Council is a member-focused association. It is dedicated to developing model codes and standards used in the design, build and compliance process to construct safe, sustainable, affordable and resilient structures. Most U.S. communities and many global markets choose the International Codes.

About ASHRAE: ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is a building technology society with more than 50,000 members worldwide. The Society and its members focus on building systems, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, refrigeration and sustainability. Through research, standards writing, publishing, certification and continuing education, ASHRAE shapes tomorrow’s built environment today. More information can be found at www.ashrae.org/news.

About NAHB: The National Association of Home Builders is a Washington-based trade association representing more than 140,000 members involved in home building, remodeling, multifamily construction, property management, subcontracting, design, housing finance, building product manufacturing and other aspects of residential and light commercial construction. NAHB is affiliated with 800 state and local home builders associations around the country. NAHB’s builder members will construct about 80 percent of the new housing units projected for this year.