Codes, Standards and Green Rating Systems: What Makes a Building Green; Active Standards for Sustainable Design

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Green Architecture
Codes, Standards and Green Rating Systems

What Makes a Building Green; Active Standards for Sustainable Design

The American Society for Testing Materials, ASTM, is not a third party certification; they are an organization that writes standards for the industry. The following is a list of current sustainable standards that relate to Green/Sustainable Design (as of August 2007).

Standard Guide for Stewardship for the Cleaning of
Commercial and Institutional Buildings
Designation E 1971-05

Standard Guide for Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of
Building Materials/Products
Designation E 1991-05

Standard Terminology for Sustainability Relative to the
Performance of Buildings
Designation E 2114-06a

Standard Practice for Data Collection for Sustainability Assessment of
Building Products
Designation E 2129-05

Standard Test Method for Maximum Media Density for Dead Load
Analysis of Green Roof Systems
Designation E 2399-05

Standard Guide for Selection, Installation, and Maintenance
Of Plants for Green Roof Systems
Designation E 2400-06

Standard Guide for General Principles of Sustainability Relative
To Buildings
Designation E 2432-05

The Construction Specification Institute is developing the GreenFormat tool with 14 major categories where manufacturers can enter their product information. Another site where green specifications can be found on the Whole Building Design Guide web site: www.wbdg.org

LEED & Green Globes

A White Paper, written by Allan M. Bilka, RA, Senior Staff Architect, ICC Technical Services, ICC Green Building White Paper, March 5, 2007, gives an overview of green buildings and how they relate to codes created by ICC.

Green Buildings are currently being rated under two developing rating systems: LEED and Green Globes.

LEED is a collection of standards that are compiled into a credit system. So the more “green standards” that one meets on a construction or renovation product, the more LEED credits are achieved and the building is considered more green. LEED is used more for commercial building rather than residential. LEED

Green Globes is also a commercial green rating system, but is gaining more in the residential sector because of support from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Green Globes

Currently Green Globes and the NAHB are listed as standards that are being developed. See the NAHB web site which is a national resource for global standards:

Green Seal

Green Seal provides science-based environmental certification standards that cover products ranging from alternative fueled vehicles, to paints, to windows. Their standards are accepted by companies such as 3M, Benjamin Moore, and Anderson Windows.

Green Seal

ISO

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a regulating body that provides international standards for quality in manufacturing. An overview of the ISO system: About ISO

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