News
ICC-ES to Launch Sustainable (‘Green’) Attribute Evaluation Program
In response to interest expressed by members of industry and in keeping with ICC’s commitment to developing and fostering activities related to sustainable design and construction, ICC-ES will soon launch a program involving supplemental evaluation reports on the sustainable attributes of products.
The program will be implemented in phases. The first phase is scheduled to begin July 1, 2008. It will consist of the verification of specific product attributes and will be limited to the ‘cradle-to-gate’ aspect. The evaluation program will focus on the validation of environmental declarations of products that fall within one or more of a number of predefined categories. Categories under consideration are: recycled content (post-consumer/pre-consumer); regionally extracted raw materials; renewable materials; certified wood products; solar reflectance index (roofing materials); volatile organic compound content (adhesives and sealants); volatile organic compound content (paints and coatings); urea formaldehyde resin content in composite wood products; and CRI certified floor coverings.
The program will embrace construction products, materials and/or systems, (hereinafter called products) that fall within one of two categories: (a) products that fall within the scope of the International Codes (I-Codes) and which have a current, valid ICC-ES Evaluation Service Report (ESR) demonstrating compliance with the applicable requirements of the I-Codes; and (b) products that do not fall within the scope of the I-Codes but within the scope of the nine categories.
Draft guidelines for the program categories are scheduled to be posted on the ICC-ES web site for a 45-day review and public comment period beginning July 1, 2008. Also at that time the rules governing this program, application forms, fee schedule and other related ancillary documents will be posted.
Future phases will consider life-cycle assessments as they relate to ‘cradle-to-gate’ and ‘cradle-to-grave’ stages of a product.
Updates on the program will be posted on this web site as they become available.
