Green Building Initiatives and Standards

North American Coalition on Green Building

The North American Coalition on Green Building is composed of over 30 organizations from various industries with a material interest in green building issues.  Meetings are held throughout the year to discuss pending legislation, new green building standards, and other issues.  NPCA sends a representative to each meeting and communicates relevant issues from these meetings with our membership.

Source: http://www.apawood.org/pdfs/unmanaged/CoalitionOnePager.pdf

Green Seal™

Green Seal™ is a nongovernmental organization that offers various industries the opportunity to have their consumer and industrial products certified under the Green Seal™ Environmental Standards Program.  Green Seal™ provides science-based environmental certification standards that are credible, transparent, and essential in an increasingly educated and competitive marketplace. 

In 2007, Green Seal™ proposed major revisions its well known GS-11 Paints Standard that was first developed in 1993.  NPCA submitted comments on the GS-11 Proposed Revised Paints Standard in September 2007.  NPCA continues to have an open dialogue with Green Seal™ regarding the effect of the proposed revised standard on our membership. The final revised standard should be available for review in 2008. In addition to the GS-11 Paints Standard, Green Seal™ also has the GC-03 Anti-Corrosive Paints Standard that is currently undergoing revision with the GS-11 Paints Standard and the GS-43 Recycled Content Latex Paint Standard.

GS-11 Proposed Revised Paints Standard

Source: http://www.greenseal.org/certification/g11_paintstandard_dev.cfm

Other Green Seal™ Environmental Standards

Source: http://www.greenseal.org/certification/environmental.cfm

U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)

USGBC is a non-profit organization committed to expanding sustainable building practices.  USGBC is composed of more than 13,500 organizations from across the building industry that are working to advance structures that are environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work.  Members include building owners and end-users, real estate developers, facility managers, architects, designers, engineers, general contractors, subcontractors, product and building system manufacturers, government agencies, and nonprofits.

The USGBC developed Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED), which  addresses all building types and emphasizes state-of-the-art strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials and resources selection, and indoor environmental quality.  LEED is a practical rating tool for green building design and construction that provides immediate and measurable results for building owners and occupants. 

Source: http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=222

Green Building Initiative (GBI)

The GBI is a not for profit organization whose mission is to accelerate the adoption of building practices that result in energy efficient, healthier environmentally sustainable buildings by promoting credible and practical green building approaches for residential and commercial construction. The GBI formed a strategic partnership with the National Association of Home Builders and developed the Green Globes environmental assessment and rating tool in 2004.

Source: http://www.greenglobes.com/default.asp

ANSI-NAHBRC National Green Building Standard

In a continuing effort to advance the use of environmentally responsible technologies in residential construction, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the International Code Council (ICC) and the NAHB Research Center have initiated a process for the development of an ANSI standard for green home building construction practices. The entire process, from the formation of a consensus committee to public review and final ANSI approval, is expected to be completed by the end of 2008. The result will be a voluntary green home building standard that can be adopted by local green home building programs or local building departments as a conformance guide. After completion of the ANSI process, the standard will be promulgated as a joint publication between NAHB and the ICC.

The NAHB Research Center is an ANSI-accredited Standards Developer for American National Standards (ANS) and will serve as the secretariat for the standard development activities. The process will follow rules and procedures in accordance with ANSI’s requirements for openness, balance, consensus, and due process.

Source: http://www.nahbrc.org/technical/standards/greenbuilding.aspx