GBInsight

March 20, 2007

GBI Shares Groundbreaking LCA Tool with Entire Green Building Community
Last month, the GBI became the first organization in North America to develop a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool for integrating the evaluation of building assemblies into green building rating systems. Now, given the importance of the tool as a climate change calculator, GBI has approved the development of a generic version, which will be offered free of charge to the entire sustainable building community.

Developed for use with the GBI’s Green Globes™ environmental assessment and rating system for commercial buildings, the tool measures the global warming potential and other environmental impacts of more than 400 common building assemblies in low- and high-rise categories. It was created by Morrison Hershfield Consulting Engineers in association with the University of Minnesota’s Center for Sustainable Building Research and the Athena® Sustainable Materials Institute, and features LCA results generated by the Athena Environmental Impact Estimator software.

The tool is being reviewed by the GBI’s ANSI technical committee prior to its integration into Green Globes. However, recognizing its value to the entire North American building community, the GBI has authorized the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute to develop a free generic version for use in other rating systems—such as LEED® and the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Model Green Home Building Guidelines—and by government entities, trade associations, universities and others.

“The LCA tool is too important to keep to ourselves,” said Ward Hubbell, executive director of the GBI. “Our mission is to make green building accessible to the mainstream design and construction community—and we see it as our duty to share important advancements for the betterment of the green building movement.” [More]

Click here to read an article on the LCA tool from the current issue of Environmental Building News. Please note: Story is only available to EBN subscribers.

Look for the GBI at these upcoming events:

Mar. 25-27	NAHB Green Building Conference St. Louis, MO. GBI Green Networking Reception Mar. 26 , 7:30 - 9:30 p.m., Adam's Mark Hotel
Apr. 16	Green Globes Training Session Portland, OR
Apr. 24-25	National Sustainable Design Expo Washington, DC
May 2	Green Globes Training Session San Antonio, TX
May 3-5	AIA National Convention and Design Exposition San Antonio, TX
May 15-17	Ecobuild America Anaheim, CA Training Session: Green Globes for Continual Improvement of Existing Buildings May 15, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Training Session: Green Globes for Commercial Building May 15, 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

It is our hope that organizations will leverage the free LCA tool and the expertise that went into its development by incorporating it into their own green building rating systems, environmental programs and policies.

The GBI is offering free use of the Green Globes environmental assessment and rating system to professional affiliates, with the number of uses dependent on the level of affiliation. To learn more, please click the turning pages below.

The GBI’s status as an innovator was reinforced by Architecture 2030’s recent call for climate change legislation based on energy data generated through the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). Widely considered to be the most accurate and reliable source of energy benchmarking information, CBECS data is currently available through only one environmental assessment and rating system—Green Globes—where it is used to establish the system’s benchmark for measured reductions in energy performance. [More]

	For builders that don’t have access to a green building program through their home builder association (HBA), the GBI is developing an interactive, web-based version of the NAHB Model Green Home Building Guidelines—which will be launched at next week’s National Green Building Conference in St. Louis, MO.

With its Model Green Home Building Guidelines, green building awards and national green building conference, the NAHB has become a leading force in the design and construction of sustainable homes.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an essential part of green building because it offers an objective and consistent way to measure the environmental impacts of materials, assemblies and even whole buildings.