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Contact: Mike Gehrig (312) 988-2065 mgehrig@thegbi.org

GBI Prepares to Release its Proposed American National Standard 01-2008P: Green Building Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings

Portland, Ore. (April 22, 2008) After nearly two years of work by close to 100 building science experts, the GBI will soon release its Proposed American National Standard 01-2008P: Green Building Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings for public comment.

Based on the Green Globes™ environmental assessment and rating system, the proposed standard represents the first time that an organization has committed its commercial building rating system to further development through ANSI’s third-party codified, consensus-based committee process, which represents the ideals of balance, transparency and public input. As such, the Green Globes system will incorporate new elements that make it even better. For example:

• The proposed standard is the first green building assessment protocol to fully incorporate life cycle assessment (LCA). The current version of Green Globes includes education credits encouraging design teams to use LCA as part of their materials decision making process. The proposed standard includes a performance path based on a software tool that provides instant LCA results for hundreds of common building assemblies. Commissioned by the GBI, this tool is available now in generic form from the Athena Institute (www.athenasmi.org) and is integrated into the proposed standard—where it is known as the Green Globes™ LCA Credit Calculator for Building Assemblies.

• It incorporates a calculator that allows users to project water consumption of new buildings based on their designs.

• In the energy section, CO₂ is used as the basis for calculating the performance path instead of the previous kBtu/sf/yr of energy consumed, which will require the calculation of CO2e (CO₂ equivalent).

• It requires the achievement of a minimum number of points in each category. Previously, Green Globes required a 35% minimum to achieve a rating, but no set number of points in each section. While the standard does not give preference to which points should be pursued, it does require a certain number in each area of assessment.

The GBI Proposed American National Standard is intended for use by building owners, design teams, developers, contractors, lenders, institutions and various levels of government, and can be applied to a broad range of commercial building types—such as office, multi-family, health care, schools, universities, labs, industrial and retail.

For up to date information, please monitor the GBI Web site at www.thegbi.org/commercial, where the GBI Proposed Standard will be available once released.

For more information about the Green Globes environmental assessment and rating system, or the GBI, visit www.thegbi.org.