So, coming into this spring, it appeared as though we were going to have two competing green building codes, and this caused quite a bit of consternation. Fortunately, the ICC and ASHRAE realized that competing codes were not in their best interest, nor in the best interests of the design, construction, and code-enforcement communities. In March, they announced a reconciliation. Both codes will continue their independent development processes, but 189.1 will be available as a “jurisdictional option” in the IGCC. This means that a jurisdiction will be able to decide to adopt 189.1 as their green building code instead of the IGCC, and will need to decide which to require at the time of code adoption. The design team will have to adhere to the selected code.
GOING FORWARD So which code will be adopted? Since the IGCC is produced by the ICC—the source that code officials turn to—it will carry a lot of weight, and it seems to be gaining momentum because of a strong marketing push from the ICC. In June, the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution endorsing the IGCC and urged local governments to adopt it. With this attention, will anyone adopt 189.1, even though it has already been published? Once IGCC-2012 is published, will there be any reason for a jurisdiction to choose 189.1 instead of IGCC? Of course, these questions are hard to answer since we do not yet know what the final IGCC will look like.
Assuming that the IGCC becomes the prevalent green building code, what will the lighting related provisions look like? Here are some things to expect:
Two new ideas in the IGCC are Jurisdictional Requirements and Project Electives. Jurisdictional Requirements are a list of provisions that the adopting authority can choose to include in the code as mandatory requirements. For example, control of light pollution is currently one of these provisions. Project Electives are a separate menu of provisions that the design team can choose from, and will have to comply with, in addition to the main mandatory provisions of the code. They will have to comply with a set minimum number of electives from this list, but they can choose which ones; the minimum number of required electives will be set by the jurisdiction at time of adoption. These two aspects of the IGCC allow the local jurisdiction to tune the code to meet its needs and conditions, and to adjust the stringency.
Assuming the IGCC becomes the green code of choice, how widely and how quickly will it be adopted? No one knows for sure. But if it is widely adopted, building design and construction professionals will have to become conversant in the IGCC, energy codes, and LEED. And they will need to know which version of the IGCC (2012, 2015, etc.) has been adopted by the jurisdiction, and also which Jurisdictional Requirements have been adopted.
MAKING SENSE OF THE BIGGER PICTURE Another thing to think about is the relationship between green building codes and energy codes. The energy provisions of the green building codes are designed to overlay the energy code and to make the standards more stringent. But what happens if a state adopts an energy code that is more stringent than the energy provisions of the green building code? This could get very confusing for designers.
If your head isn’t already hurting, try this: Say you are designing the lighting for a LEED project in a locality that has adopted a green building code. You will have to design to two different green standards, every design option will have to be tested twice, and two sets of calculations and documents will need to be produced to prove compliance with each provision in both. I hope the USGBC and the ICC are thinking about this.
If green building codes are widely adopted, we design professionals will have our work cut out for us. Not only will we have a responsibility to design to the green building code, but we will also need to understand that code’s relationship to energy codes, LEED, and other codes such as the MLO.