Standards & Compliance Briefing: LEED Milestone; BIFMA; Public Swimming Pool Standard

by | Apr 10, 2014

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The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced today that 3 billion square feet of green construction space has earned LEED certification around the globe. “This milestone is the result of leaders across our industry making the business and environmental case for healthy, sustainable buildings,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair, USGBC. “More than 4.3 million people live and work in LEED buildings. As our numbers continue to gain momentum, the impact is significant — jobs are created, revenue is generated and well-being is prioritized — proving every day that LEED works.”

The San Diego International Airport’s recent expansion of Terminal 2, dubbed the “Green Build,” has been awarded a platinum certification by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It is the first commercial airport terminal in the world to earn a LEED Platinum designation.

The Association of Pool & Spa Professionals announces its newly revised standard for public swimming pools, and is offering it free to public health officials across the country. To complement this offering, APSP is also bundling its public pool and spa water quality standard free of charge.  Approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/APSP/International Code Council (ICC)-1 2014 Standard for Public Swimming Pools features significant changes that will impact pool builders, installers and pool operators nationwide and protect those who use and enjoy public pools. The ANSI/APSP-11 2009 Standard for Water Quality in Public Pools and Spas provides recommended minimum guidelines for pool and spa water quality and chemistry in public pools and spas.

A strategic partnership between the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) and the Health Product Declaration (HPD) Collaborative will create standardized chemical identification, assessment and disclosure protocol for office furniture products and components. The groups said the standardized protocol would align with the ANSI/BIFMA e3 Furniture Sustainability and level Certification Program.

The ethanol industry needs to call for new fuel testing standards when testing gasoline with varying ethanol content, according to Steve Vander Griend, technical manager of fuel and engine technology at ICM Inc. Vander Griend pointed to a study that shows varying vehicle emission results that were influenced by how test fuels were formulated. The study, SAE Paper 2014-01-1451, is being presented by a team from the University of California at the SAE 2014 World Congress & Exhibition today. Looking at E10, E15 and E20 results, the authors find that ethanol makes a small reduction to particulate emissions, but raises toxic benzene and other emissions. Vander Griend requested the paper be peer reviewed a second time.

David Horlock, managing director of BSI (British Standards Institute) Asia Pacific, made a case for the beef industry developing its own standards at last week’s Northern Territory Cattlemans’ Association (NTCA) Conference in Darwin.

In rejecting the advice of his staff at the Department of Environmental Conservation about sulfolane pollution standards in North Pole, Alaska, Commissioner Larry Hartig said the agency had not paid enough attention to evidence put forward by Flint Hills Resources, which operates a refinery in the town of 2,200 southeast of Fairbanks. In a decision released last week, he also said the Division of Spill Prevention and Response (SPAR) didn’t do enough to explain itself and may have interpreted state regulations too narrowly.

Representatives of Washington’s biggest economic development agencies, city and county governments and major industries sent Gov. Jay Inslee a letter warning that pending changes in clean water regulations could result in “economic turmoil.” The letter is signed by leaders of 25 organization, ranging from the Association of Washington Cities to the Aerospace Futures Alliance of Washington to the Northwest Food Processors Association. They are worried Washington will adopt standards so stringent they will bring growth to a standstill.

Glen Raven Custom Fabrics has reinforced its NSF/ANSI 336 sustainability assessment with third-party certification by UL Environment. More than 50 patterns in the Sunbrella Contract fabric line, including those with the company’s Defiance treatment, carry the Silver Level certification. Glen Raven Custom Fabrics self-certified two of its fabrics — a filling-face twill and plain-weave canvas — under the standard in 2011. The company says it was the first to do so since the Association of Contract Textiles (ACT) instituted the sustainability standard for commercial furnishings fabrics. An expanded self-assessment of more than 35 fabrics followed in February 2013.

R2 Solutions has added Garth Hickle to its board of directors. Hickle is involved in the electronics recycling and product stewardship sectors. He is the chair of the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials Product Stewardship Task Force, a board member of the Electronics Recycling Coordination Clearinghouse and the product stewardship team leader with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. He also was honored with a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship in 2001 to pursue research in international product stewardship policy and has published articles in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, the Journal for Cleaner Production, Corporate Environmental Strategy and Environmental Quality Management, among others.

In a dedication ceremony earlier this week, Hilmar Cheese Company, Inc. announced its new Headquarters and Innovation Center in Hilmar, California was awarded LEED Platinum certification established by the U.S. Green Building Council and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). LEED is the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.

IES’ online project management system, IES TaP for LEED, now supports the USGBC’s latest LEED Version 4 and has been validated by USGBC for integration with LEED Online. Users can use the tool to review their project status, populate all LEED online forms and upload relevant documentation, ready for final submission to USGBC.

A series of audits conducted by Bureau Veritas at the end of March reaffirmed PCB manufacturer AT&S AG’s compliance with the standards for quality, environmental protection, and workplace health and safety. All of the AT&S Group’s plants have demonstrated compliance with the ISO 9001 and TS 16949 (quality management for automotive production) quality standards, the ISO 14001 environmental management standard, and the OHSAS 18001 standard for occupational health and safety.

Green Building Initiative (GBI) President Jerry Yudelson presented a keynote talk on April 8th at the ASHRAE High-Performance Buildings conference in San Francisco. Yudelson also participated in a discussion organized by the National Institute of Building Sciences around the topic of defining net zero energy buildings. Yudelson says, “The pressing issue of our time is dealing with climate change, and reducing the operating energy use of buildings is critical to that effort.” He has committed the GBI to take a leading role in rating and certifying high-performance buildings as it updates and improves its national Green Globes rating standards over the next few years.

DNV GL has recently completed the Design Evaluation for a 2.5-MW wind turbine designed by Goldwind. At the 8th China International Wind Energy Exhibition, DNV GL handed over a Conformity Statement to Goldwind, one of the largest wind turbine manufacturers in China. It confirms that the turbine meets the requirements according to the standard IEC 61400-22 and IEC 61400-1 of the International Electrotechnical Commission.

In testimony before the Senate Agriculture Committee this week, Jan Koninckx, global business director for Biorefineries at DuPont, called on Congress to preserve the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which he said has spurred hundreds of millions of dollars of private investment in advanced biofuels and is expediting the transition from a petroleum-based to a bio-based global economy.

With over 42 million tonnes of the fuel sold last year, Singapore is the world’s top bunkering port. Bunkering is the process of supplying fuel to ships. And to improve transparency and the accuracy of bunker readings, Singapore will mandate the use of a new mass flow metering system.

Harvard Management Company’s (HMC) timberland plantations, EVASA and Las Misiones, located in Northern Argentina, announced they have obtained Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. The certifications were awarded by the Rainforest Alliance, an independent third-party accredited to certify companies to FSC’s international standards. According to a release, the certifications (EVASA license code FSC-C023237; Las Misiones license code FSC-C115562) verify continued adherence to FSC’s standards in the environmental, economic and social performance of timber plantations, and endorses EVASA’s and Las Misiones’ strong track record of maintaining responsible forestry management practices.

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