The American Institute of Steel Construction has published a statement of its opinion regarding the ASHRAE committee just disbanded. The statement may be found here:
http://www.aisc.org/Template.cfm?Section=News&template=/PressRelease/Pre...
Blog Post
Green building code standard committee disbanded
A story's been posted on BuildingGreen.com that ASHRAE has unexpectedly pulled the plug on the Standard 189 development committee. This standard is supposed to be "a new minimum, code-enforceable standard for green buildings." The USGBC and IES have been working with ASHRAE on the project since 2006, and were apparently ambushed by ASHRAE's decision to shake up the process. From the article: "Speaking off the record, multiple sources reported signs that ASHRAE had been influenced by various trade associations, which were either unsupportive of ASHRAE's involvement in a green building standard as an engineering association, or had objections to basic premises of the standard, such as its approach to various building materials." Read the story "Uncertain Future for ASHRAE Standard 189." - - - - - Before I could get this online, one of the authors of the story, Tristan Korthals Altes, posted this in the comments area (where subscribers can add their thoughts to any content page of the website) following the piece: "Since this article went online, we spoke with Jeff Littleton, the executive v.p. for ASHRAE. He emphasized ASHRAE's intention to reconstitute the committee, potentially with many of the same members and possibly a few additional ones, and to proceed with work on the standard. This process is likely to take 30-45 days, he says. Whether or not the standard continues on its current — and fairly stringent — course will be up to the committee." Good news, but I'm still concerned about some of the issues raised about how and why this all transpired.
Published October 17, 2008 Permalink Citation
(2008, October 17). Green building code standard committee disbanded. Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/blog/green-building-code-standard-committee-disbanded
Comments
Just when you think all of th
Just when you think all of the neanderthals had already become extinct, one shows up to clearly illustrate why progress against global warming and pollution is sytematically thwarted. Leave it up to the professionals?! What you really mean is "leave me alone to make a profit at any cost" don't you? Do you really think you can just dig and drill and suck and gouge all of the earth's resources while regurgitating them as air pollution without consequences forever? That doesn't make sense at any level.
Whenever the stakes are high
Whenever the stakes are high and there is the chance of real progress being made in the evolution of practices towards sustainability, the lobbyists come in to divide and conquer. To me it is strong a sign to push on - that that the proposed standard is worth fighting for. There are several ANSI sustainability-related standards in review process at the moment where this is happening. On the Sustainable Ag standard in particular, the USDA actually had their law teams send cease and desist letters to the standards committee. When the dysfunction of ingrained establishment is threatened, it's time to rally.
This seems to have the same p
This seems to have the same political undercurrents that met the ASTM development of proposed standard guides for green building under committee E-50 back in 1993-1999, where NAHB, the forest products trade groups, and others ganged up to say "green building standards would economically depress the construction industry, and represent unwarranted regulation" into their patch.
Divide and conquer, demand perpetual research, obfuscate information, "serve" on committees in order to dilute their progress. This is all trade association MO, that I know so well from having served on the staff of one 800# gorilla back in the late '80s. These groups want to "own" the debate to control how much green is "right" and protect their narrow interests. Remember, for the construction industry change is the enemy, and anything can be twisted around to make it look like it is "too hard", "too new", "unproven", "risky" and "expensive" until at their convenience later all of a sudden it becomes their own idea like magic. Then it is OK. Wow, this is really too bad after all that work.
But there is always LEED Certification, which in more and more cases is being called upon to represent a de-facto standard by various jurisdictions who are not willing to wait around until the building trade associations say "now it is OK to have a green standard." I have seen instances with LEED Cert. becomes the guide level, and buildings need to meet that criteria whether actually registered and certified or not. Thanks USGBC !!
Has anyone considered going a
Has anyone considered going around ASHRAE and working with ISO? I've heard that there are increasing numbers of companies in manufacturing that are being asked to meet ISO standards to supply the world market.
There are plenty of people in Europe could collaborate on a green building standards even if some American groups want to drag their feet. The Sustainable Building Alliance is working on developing common metrics for green buildings in Europe - http://www.sballiance.org/
The best course for now may b
The best course for now may be to "encourage" ASHRAE to resist the trade industry pressure. The USGBC has already been pressured to admit trade associations into membership due to pressure from the vinyl industry trade association a few years ago. In the longer term a discussion would be beneficial of whether a pure consensus process is really the best course of action for encouraging sustainability. Those industries most affected by various measures and standards definitely need to have input, and we need their input, but they should also be recused from voting on those areas where there is a conflict of interest.
Would ASHRAE's people be wis
Would ASHRAE's people be wise and intelligent, able to stop the GREEN FRENZY and send the
LEED FIDDLERS to unemployement where they belong?
Can we hope to see the GLOBAL WARMING SWINDLE become a joke of the past?
Let's give the Construction Industry back to the Professionals and keep the jerks away, free
to slobber their insanity elsewhere.
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