Building-sector groups once again are decrying the Portland Cement Association’s revised requirements for sustainable buildings, which were released recently. The move came after a failed attempt by PCA—at code hearings in August 2009—to get any of the provisions of High Performance Building Requirements for Sustainability 2.0 adopted into the model International Green Building Code. Other organizations characterize PCA’s second attempted end run around the accepted model-code development process as a self-serving push for the use of concrete over rival structural materials through the local adoption of code provisions that have been consistently rejected at the national level.
High Performance Building Requirements for Sustainability 2.0 (HPBRS2) and related code-change proposals for the International Building Code (IBC) and other International Code Council (ICC) codes are “not-so-veiled attempts” to rewrite the basic building code and transform it into a far-reaching “stretch” code, says Ronald Burton, vice president of codes, standards and regulatory affairs for the Building Owners and Managers Association, Washington, D.C. “BOMA will vigorously oppose this effort,” he says.