Green Building Initiative

On June 30, 2008, the Green Building Initiative™ (GBI) announced that it has completed the first public comment period for its proposed American National Standard for commercial green buildings, known officially as the "GBI Proposed American National Standard 01-200XP: Green Building Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings."

During the six week public comment period that concluded on June 9, 2008, the GBI received over 400 comments from a diverse group of individuals and organizations, including the U.S. General Services Administration, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the University of Arkansas and University of Georgia, among others.

"We've been pleased by the breadth of the comments we've been able to review thus far," said Wayne Trusty, chair of the GBI ANSI Standards Committee and president of the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute. "The whole point of the ANSI public comment period is to provide a transparent process through which to collect constructive feedback from experts in the many fields related to green building—and to use those comments to improve the proposed standard. It's great to have so many individuals and organizations participating in this process and offering positive feedback and insights."

Based on the Green Globes™ environmental assessment and rating system, the proposed standard also incorporates several new elements developed by the GBI ANSI Standards Committee and sub-committees, including:

The requirement to achieve a minimum number of points in each of the system's seven areas of assessment.
A change to the energy section whereby CO2 is used as the basis for calculating the performance path instead of relying solely on projecting kBtu/sf/yr of energy consumed. The standard will continue to rely on the ENERGY STAR's Target Finder program, as Green Globes does now, but will now require the calculation of CO2e (CO2 equivalent) and, as mentioned above, the achievement of a minimum amount of points.
The Green Globes LCA Credit Calculator for Building Assemblies, which fully incorporates life cycle assessment (LCA) into the system.
The Green Globes Water Consumption Calculator, which allows users to project water consumption of new buildings based on their designs.
Efforts toward the proposed standard began in 2005 when the GBI became the first green building organization to be accredited as a Standards Developing Organization (SDO) by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The process soon became an integral part of the GBI's commitment to develop and promote consensus-based standards—which in turn give design and building professionals confidence that the tools they're using represent current research and best practices.

The Proposed American National Standard is intended for use by building owners, design teams, developers, contractors, lenders, institutions and various levels of government, and can be applied to a broad range of commercial building types—such as office, multi-family, health care, schools, universities, labs, industrial and retail.

"The public comment period is at the foundation of our commitment to take Green Globes through ANSI's third-party codified, consensus-based committee process," said Ward Hubbell, president of the GBI. "The fact that such a diverse group of individuals, organizations and government agencies took the time to provide substantive feedback reinforces that the this process represents the ideals of balance and transparency—which are critical to the development of a national green building standard."

Per ANSI protocols, the GBI ANSI Standards Committee will evaluate all of the comments received, formally respond to the contributors, address any need for further research, and make appropriate revisions to the proposed standard. From there, the technical committee will hold a final letter ballot before sending the proposed standard to ANSI for formal approval. The GBI hopes to complete the ANSI process within the year. For more information about the GBI proposed ANSI standard or the Green Globes system, visit www.thegbi.org.

Testifying today on behalf of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) before a House Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality hearing on “Climate Benefits of Improved Building Energy Efficiency,” St. Louis green builder Matt Belcher cautioned Congress on the danger of one-size-fits-all proposals for home construction.

Policies that encourage rather than mandate energy savings are the most meaningful at stimulating greater demand for energy-efficient homes, Belcher said.

“The ability of aggressive building code mandates to achieve massive energy and greenhouse gas emissions savings is incredibly limited. The wide-ranging geographic differences in state and local climates create specific building needs, making national benchmarks almost untenable,” he said.

Further, “significant increases in costs for efficiency upgrades and the additional increase in home price to accommodate them has the potential to harm the part of the market with the least flexibility to react to price constraints: the marginal first-time home buyer,” Belcher said. “NAHB does not support the assertion that a broad public policy objective should be achieved on the backs of a relatively narrow segment of the market with limited resources.”

And even when a home is built to be more energy efficient, it does not translate into automatic energy savings. “Almost half of the energy consumed in a home is the result of the lighting, refrigeration, laundry, cooking, and electronics use by the residents,” Belcher pointed out. “The disconnect between [building] envelope improvements – which are primarily the responsibility of the builder, and resident behavior – over which a builder has no control, is one of the major barriers to achieving greater improvements in residential energy efficiency in new homes.”

“It is false to assume that just requiring states or local governments to adopt an arbitrary above-code compliance target for all new construction is going to translate into improved enforcement . . or achieve the energy savings goals envisioned,” Belcher told Congress. “If resources, or infrastructure, to enforce the code are not available, then the savings assumed will never materialize.”

Belcher also asked Congress to extend the New Energy Efficient Home Credit, which was enacted in 2005 and expires at the end of the year.

Department of Energy research shows that residential buildings consume 21.9% of the nation’s energy and produce 21% of its greenhouse gas emissions. However, Belcher pointed out, mandating that all new homes must achieve significant above-code performance will not produce the greatest energy savings because new homes are a small of the problem. Solutions to address all 21% - and include existing homes –demands greater focus.

Belcher also explained how the NAHB National Green Building Program can move the market. “The dynamic ways that the green building movement is rapidly changing residential construction is only one example of a broader, market-determined push for greater efficiency. In the midst of the worst housing downturn since World War II, builders continue to see growth in demand for green and energy efficient homes, as well as increased requests for efficiency upgrades in the 128 million existing homes, comprising the bulk of the nation’s residential energy consumption,” he said.

The Green Building Initiative (GBI), a not-for-profit education and marketing initiative dedicated to accelerating the adoption of green building practices, recently announced a new partnership with NewHomesDirectory.com, an online listing service for new homes and communities.

Through this new partnership, GBI is offering Home Builder Association members within its network free listings for new green homes on the NewHomesDirectory.com site, which is searched by thousands of home buyers every day. The site will also include information on the benefits of green homes, including energy savings and improved indoor air quality.

“We’re thrilled to partner with NewHomesDirectory.com and bring a great resource for builders to help showcase their sustainable homes,” said Ward Hubbell, president of the GBI. “Resources like NewHomesDirectory.com are critical to help spur the demand for green homes, as well as help educate prospective buyers about the benefits of green homes.”

“We think there’s a huge market for green homes,” said Jim Adams, CEO of NewHomesDirectory.com. “That’s why we’re excited to partner with the GBI, as well as their local home builder association partners, to give consumers a central listing location for green homes in their area.” For more information about the GBI or the partnership with NewHomesDirectory.com, visit www.thegbi.org or www.newhomesdirectory.com.

Florida and Indiana recently became the seventeenth and eighteenth states respectively to formally recognize the Green Building Initiative’s (GBI) Green Globes environmental assessment and rating system in legislation.

Two weeks ago, Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed into law a comprehensive new energy and economic development package aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as encouraging investment in alternative and renewable energy technologies. Among it many provisions, the new legislation stipulates that all newly constructed and renovated buildings owned by the state or local government must meet the requirements of the GBI’s Green Globes environmental assessment and rating system, the Florida Green Building Coalition’s green building program, the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, or an equivalent nationally recognized certification or rating system.

Last week, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels issued an executive order establishing an energy-efficient state building initiative which calls for all new state buildings to be designed, constructed, operated and maintained to achieve maximum energy efficiency. To comply with the order, efficiency must be demonstrated by achieving a two globe rating under the Green Globes system, a silver rating under the LEED system, or an equivalent rating from a system that has been accredited by the American National Standards Institute. This is the first executive order that has recognized Green Globes.

“We applaud the leadership of Florida and Indiana for taking such aggressive steps to encourage sustainable design and construction through these comprehensive legislative packages,” said Ward Hubbell, president of the GBI. “Clearly, both states recognize that improving our built environment is an immediate priority. By allowing for more than one rating system, they are providing the kind of choice necessary to encourage mainstream design and building professionals to accelerate the adoption of green building practices. We hope these policies will serve as examples for other leaders to follow when determining their own sustainability initiatives.”

Florida and Indiana join Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin as states which have formally recognized Green Globes in legislation. For more information about Green Globes or the GBI, visit www.thegbi.org.

International real estate money management and services firm, Jones Lang LaSalle, today announced the acquisition of ECD Energy and Environment Canada, original developer of the Green Globes™ environmental assessment and rating systems for commercial properties and proprietor of the new construction module in Canada.

Jones Lang LaSalle announced the acquisition as part of its strategy to help clients build profitable businesses through environmentally sustainable real estate use, which also includes its recent acquisition of Upstream, the United Kingdom’s leading real estate sustainability services practice. As part of the agreement, the Green Building Initiative™ (GBI) will retain licensing rights to develop and distribute two modules, Green Globes for New Construction and Green Globes for Continual Improvement of Existing Buildings, in the United States. The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Canada will retain rights to further develop and distribute the existing buildings module in Canada under the brand name "Go Green Plus."

"This acquisition validates the integrity and benefits of the Green Globes suite of tools, increases the profile of the tools in the marketplace and will hopefully lead to a variety of new opportunities for everyone involved," said Ward Hubbell, president of the GBI. "However, this acquisition will have no impact on GBI operations or our technical and marketing efforts with respect to the Green Globes tools as we will continue to operate as an independent, non-profit organization."

Green Globes Suite of Tools Genesis
ECD Energy and Environment Canada was instrumental in bringing the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) to Canada in 1996, which was the genesis of the Green Globes assessment and benchmarking tools in use today. First introduced as BREEAM Canada, the tool was developed through the Canadian Standards Association with input from leading construction, design and environmental experts, before being introduced in its current web-based form as Green Globes.

In 2004, the GBI acquired the rights to distribute Green Globes in the United States and has focused on continually refining the system in an open and transparent forum to ensure that it reflects changing opinions and ongoing advances in research and technology. To that end, in 2005, GBI became the first green building organization to be accredited as a standards developer by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and began the process of establishing Green Globes as the first American National Standard for commercial green building. The GBI recently completed the ANSI-required public comment period for the proposed standard and hopes to publish the final standard before the end of this year. For more information about Green Globes or the GBI, visit www.thegbi.org.