New green building standard nears completion

A proposed new standard that will provide minimum guidelines for green building practices is nearly complete and has been released for public review and comment. Comments will be accepted through July 9, 2007 at www.ashrae.org/publicreviews. The standard is being developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) in conjunction with the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and will be the first of its kind in the United States.

Standard 189P (Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings) will provide a baseline for sustainable design, construction, and operations in order to drive green building into mainstream building practices.It will apply to new commercial buildings and major renovation projects, and will address key areas of performance including energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable site selection, water usage, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality.

“Standard 189P will become the benchmark for all sustainable green buildings in the United States because it is being developed for inclusion into building codes,” said committee chair John Hogan, chair of the Standard 189P Project Committee. “This means that owners and designers will have a consensus-based document that will set the minimum criteria that a building must satisfy in order to be considered a green building. The real impact of Standard 189P is that ASHRAE, along with IESNA and USGBC, is taking advanced energy conservation guidance mainstream for the general public's benefit.”

Hogan also noted that the standard is not a building rating system per se, but rather a compilation of criteria that must be met in order for local building code officials to provide a Certificate of Occupancy for a facility. 

Standard 189P is being developed using USGBC’s LEED® Green Building Rating System™, which addresses the top 25% of building practice, as a key resource. Upon completion, Standard 189 will be an ANSI-accredited standard that can be incorporated into building code. It is intended that the standard will eventually become a prerequisite for LEED certification.

Proposed Standard 189P will be available only during public review periods. To read the addenda or to comment, visit www.ashrae.org/publicreviews.