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Please check out my new blow www.greenbuildingenvirotrends.com where I will be writing about green building, land development, and environmental trends and legal issues. Thank you so much for following my blog I hope that you continue to find what I have to say interesting.

Green Building Regulations

While much of the emphasis on green building centers around talk of LEED certification, the best known and most widely accepted certification system, 2009 has introduced several new regulations and codes which are worthy of discussion.
The first of these is the ASHRAE Standard 189. Some of you might remember that ASHRAE attempted to develop their green building standard last year but abandoned their attempt after complaints from several industry groups that their interests were not properly represented. Section 189 is titled "Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings". On January 27, 2009 the committee was expanded to include 34 voting members and seeks to implement a code which will outline minimum criteria for green building practices, the standard will be applicable to new commercial buildings and major renovation projects. When completed, it will address energy efficiency, a building’s impact on the atmosphere, sustainable sites, water use efficiency, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality, among other high-performance green building issues.
On January 29, 2009 ICC- 700 was approved as the American National Standard. The new Standard provides guidance for safe and sustainable building practices for residential construction, including both new and renovated single-family to high-rise residential buildings. This is the first and only green standard that is consistent and coordinated with the Code Council’s family of I-Codes and standards. Board President Adolf Zubia said, “this is an enormous step forward in bringing focus to green practices for the built environment. ICC-700 provides a benchmark for green building in the residential market, serving as a new and needed starting point for comprehensive approaches to green residential construction. This is the result of many months of hard work by our members and our partners around the country.”

The standard’s rating system allows builders, designers and communities to choose the levels of high-performance green buildings that best suit their needs. Key provisions include:
• Land conservation
• Rainwater collection
• Construction of smaller homes to conserve resources
• Energy performance starting at 15% above the baseline requirements of the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code
• The use of low VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) materials and detached garages or carports to improve indoor environmental quality
• Homeowner education on proper maintenance and operation to maintain its green status throughout its life cycle

ICC-700 is available at the following website.

Stay tuned for more news regarding these codes and how they will be implemented in green construction projects around the country. It is important to note the increased flexibility that ICC-700 offers over LEED to those construction residential houses.

Polk County Builders Association

Exciting news today from Beth over at PCBA, @pcba on twitter. Beth informed me that the PCBA in partnership with Mike Hickman of Hickman homes will soon begin construction of a 2300 square foot green home in the Morgan Creek subdivision in Lakeland, FL. The home is aiming to be certified by the Florida Green Building Coalition, Energy Star, and Florida Water Star. Any profits from the sale of the home are going to be donated to the PCBA foundation to benefit future builders. Keep your eyes open for more news on this project as it progresses.

Number of LEED projects doubles in 2008

The number of LEED certified green buildings doubled in 2008. Much of this increase is due to the fact that buildings which were started one or two years ago are now being completed and achieving certification. Five large projects have been completed in Texas over the last several months including Dell Childrens Hospital, the first hospital to achieve LEED certification and computer chip manufacturers 870,000 corpororate campus which recently obtained LEED Gold certification.
The increase in LEED certifications is expected to continue in 2009 as USGBC begins to outsource the certification process in an effort to eliminate the 17,400 project backlog they had at the start of this month.
For more information the article can be found here.

Cabrera Construction goes Green

CORAL GABLES, Fla., Jan. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Dignitaries and area politicians will be walking the "green carpet" during Thursday's "An Evening in Havana" gala in Coral Gables, celebrating the grand opening of Cabrera Construction's South Florida corporate office. Cabrera Construction is a contractor with LEED-accredited staff that has been appointed by Miami's Mayor Manuel Diaz to the Miami Green Commission. Cabrera Construction will be one of the first contractors in South Florida to have their existing 6,000 square feet corporate office building in Coral Gables LEED certified.

"We are as dedicated to our green building commitments here at Cabrera as our new President Obama has stated he will be in his administration," said Cabrera Construction's LEED-accredited chief estimator Chad Londos. "Here at Cabrera Construction, we are not only making our office building LEED certified, but we are also dedicated to helping our community and clients understand the real importance of this global issue," he added.

Great to see Florida based builders going green!

Virtual Green Building Symposium

Very exciting news this week! Earlier this weekend I floated the idea with some friends on Twitter of a Green Building Symposium to bring everyone together to discuss Green Building and to compile our collective knowledge on all aspects of the building process. This symposium will hopefully cover everything from conception through completion and the ultimate lawsuits which can potentially arise after occupancy. Vik Duggal who can be reached on twitter @vikdug proposed making the symposium entirely virtual so as to allow people all over the U.S. and the World to participate and to eliminate the carbon produced by travel. Excellent idea Vik! I am pleased to announce I will be purchasing carbon credits from www.nativeenergy.com to offset the carbon produced to power participants computers. I truly look forward to this event and any input anybody might have.

Florida Commercial Construction

The Northeast Florida commercial construction market was hit hard in 2008 with a 17% drop in new construction and things predicted to worsen.
"Where is the bottom?" said Dan Downey, regional publisher for McGraw-Hill Construction, which compiles reports on the industry. "That's what everybody wants to know."Overall, nonresidential construction in 2008 totaled an estimated $1.28 billion for the Jacksonville area, which was a 17 percent decline from the previous year, according to McGraw-Hill. The outlook for 2009 is a further decline of 9 percent.
What does this mean for the Florida market? Hopefully the decrease in commercial construction is offset by Obama's stimulus plan but for now I suppose we shall wait and see.

http://www.jacksonville.com/business/2009-01-11/commercial_construction_where_is_the_bottom