Ending voting on ICC Green Building Codes
hughw
| Posted in Building Code Questions on
Came across this article as the lead article in Politics on Huffington Post. Some of you may dismiss HuffPo as a lefty mouthpiece…and there is some of that. But in my mind this article sadly reflects what’s going on in our national politics whether it be rejection of climate warming by many on the right….or more directly, effort to suppress voting by minority groups….although in this case it’s about suppressing building officials.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/climate-green-building-codes_n_60381e23c5b60d98bec8dc7d
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Replies
so now the Biden administration is wading in on behalf of cities to have input into the ICC
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/building-codes_n_603d0f3bc5b6d7794ae0e15f
Hurray for that! Of all the human manufactured objects homes and building are some of the longest lived. It only makes sense that when building new structures you improve the codes on a regular basis to have lasting impacts for the inhabitants and the planet. I'm not sure the new administration will be successful though. One can only hope.
so...it'd done...the oil and gas companies have taken over control of the ICC
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/building-codes-international-code-council_n_603fd6b4c5b682971504df8e
Sorry to hear that. I dared not let myself get my hopes up too much. Still, sad to hear this.
I'm not so sure this really changes anything. Having often had to deal with politicized "standards" processes, I don't think localities voting on codes is a good idea to begin with. There are several reasons for this: one is that many localities don't really have building departments anymore, they are using outside contractors for plan review and inspection services. This is a both a blessing and a curse in many ways. Another issue is that it doesn't make a lot of sense for a local city having a lot of say in a national-level code. Florida and Maine have different requirements, for example. Cities can already adopt more stringent local codes, so they can always require something more than the "base" code anyway.
There is no reason industry groups wouldn't push for more insulation, either, or the use of new products. I'm most familiar with the code process the NFPA uses for the National Electrical Code, and manufacturers can submit code ideas just like anyone else (there is a form in the back of the code book). Sometimes this can be a problem (disallowing smurf tube or requiring AFCIs everywhere, as some examples), but sometimes it's a good thing too. Manufacturers love getting their product written into the code as a requirement, but this is often bad news for builders and owners.
This effort looked to me as a "they could do this thing they didn't know they could do, then they things changed a bit so they couldn't do it anymore". Sounds like stuff is going to continue pretty much how it's been. Energy codes have been gradually getting tighter for decades now, and that's likely to continue. Manufacturers of new gaskets and seals will advocate for those things to get required by the code. I don't see any need for doom and gloom here.
Bill