ASHRAE, NAHB, 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) 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.

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 multi-family homes and residential developments for reaching its established benchmarks for energy, water and resource efficiency, indoor environmental quality, homeowner education, and site development.

Applications to serve on the NGBS consensus development committee are open through April 6, 2014, which also is 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 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 in a release. "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."