The International Code Council and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers Inc. have merged their efforts, rather than compete, to develop the nation’s first “green” model code for commercial buildings. The model code, released on March 15, is open for public comment through May 14 but now is available to jurisdictions. Version 2.0, based on public input, will be released by Nov. 3. The goal is to develop an adoptable and enforceable model code.
“Bringing together the code expertise of ICC with the technical expertise of ASHRAE to create a comprehensive green building code will accelerate our transformation to more sustainable building practices,” says Gordon Holness, president of Atlanta-based ASHRAE. Richard Weiland, CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based ICC, says the merger is an effort to dispense with some of the “potential confusion” associated with two different model codes.