An e-newsletter communicating progress on the IGCC initiative.

Since our last update of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) initiative, the International Code Council, along with cooperating sponsors AIA and ASTM International and numerous other stakeholders, has made an aggressive push for public awareness around this game-changing initiative. ICC and its partners have kept a steady drumbeat of news and events, which have propelled coverage in both print/online media, as well as visibility in social media communities such as Twitter. To increase the conversation on sustainable building codes, the IGCC outreach effort has leveraged numerous opportunities to engage people already involved in green conversations and worked to harness their interest in the role of building codes so that they become advocates for the IGCC.

The news clips below focus on the SBTC events and general news generated this fall. The clips are overwhelmingly positive in tone and the audience reach for these clips is estimated over few million impressions. On Thanksgiving Day, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s business section led with a story focused on the IGCC and the future of green building in Pennsylvania. Maureen Guttman and Dave Walls were featured in the article. Pick up of the article included the McClatchy Publishing network and popular online outlets like Treehugger which garner more than a million readers per month:

Miami Herald Sacramento Bee Treehugger.com Anchorage Daily News The Wichita Eagle The Idaho Statesman

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Raleigh News & Observer Pennenvironment.org The Olympian (WA) Akron Beacon Journal DailyMe

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Fresno Bee The Tribune - San Luis Obispo, CA The Island Packet (Hilton Head, SC) Engineering News-Record Ledger Enquirer (GA)

AIA has had monthly reporting in AIA Architect and follows the SBTC meetings in depth.

• July launch coverage    • SBTC meeting – Chicago    • SBTC meeting – Denver    • SBTC meeting – Philadelphia

Not to be outdone, ASTM has published a contributed feature article written by ICC’s Dominic Sims in their November/December issue in Standardization News. The National Association of Counties (NACo), recently ran an update on the IGCC in their bi-weekly e-newsletter which is distributed to nearly 20,000 contacts in county government throughout the US. In addition to the original articles listed above, trade publications also ran the news announcement regarding the Philadelphia SBTC story.

• Metal Building Developer      ran a feature story contributed by Ravi Shah in their green scene      section featuring the IGCC and an overview of the initiative.    • Colorado Construction Magazine      featured the IGCC in an article titled “Decoding Green” which touched      on the partnerships involved in making the IGCC a reality.    • Building Officials Association of Florida      published an IGCC overview to the 3000+ members in the state.      We’re open to more of these requests, so please keep sending them!

We are monitoring the blogger community and engaging bloggers with updates on the IGCC and where to find more information. We have issued several corrections to blogs or list serv sites that maintain an influential readership and will continue to do so moving forward. Of recent interest is a post on the well-trafficked site of Annarbor.com by LEED® Accredited Professional and lawyer, Harvey Berman of Ann Arbor, Michigan AnnArbor.com points out the need for the IGCC and the clarification between IGCC and rating systems. Additional blogger coverage on the IGCC includes posts from the RMR Group, a northern Rockies construction firm and Building Green, Being Green written by a structural engineer interested in sustainable building practices.

Our Twitter presence is being managed by ICC, AIA and ASTM. Through their efforts we have been able to rally attention around IGCC news to the tune of thousands of people exposed to the campaign. Over a dozen followers of ICC re-tweeted the news on the Philadelphia Inquirer story to their networks making for an extension and awareness of the story to thousands of people worldwide. Twittercounter.com, an online resource for measuring effective Tweeting, started tracking ICC on June 3, 2009. ICC is still tracking increased numbers when it comes to picking up new followers for its tweets! We have added over 200 new followers in less than 60 days.

» The Florida Green Building Magazine will publish a contributed story on     the IGCC, the new product evaluation program ES-SAVE and green     standards. » The Building Safety Journal will publish an IGCC overview for ICC     members and subscribers who have not yet read about the initiative. » StoCorp’s PROTECT newsletter for the building industry will feature     ICC’s Allan Bilka commenting on the future of sustainable building for     the November newsletter. » If you subscribe to the greenbuildinginsider.com, then look for an     overview of the IGCC in an upcoming newsletter.

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