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ICC eNews

The Challenge of a Generation

Determining the role of building codes in green and sustainable construction practices is one of the challenges that will define the future of the Code Council, CEO Rick Weiland told conference delegates during the Annual Business Meeting. "Our challenge—and it is, I believe, the great professional challenge of our generation—is to establish what role building codes should play in facilitating, promoting and regulating this expanded concept of safety," Weiland said. "And how we answer that question, I believe, will almost certainly determine the fate of our organization."

Weiland pointed to efforts of the Council's legacy organizations to develop with the Department of Energy the country's first energy-efficient construction code that remains in use on state and local levels. As jurisdictions continue to rely on the International Code Council for building and fire safety, he said the organization should translate the need for safe and sustainable structures into sensible and enforceable codes.

“The fundamental mandate of our model codes is, and always will be, to protect the health and safety of building occupants," Weiland explained. "But with health and safety now part of the same equation, we must, in the words of one leading writer on the subject, 'find a sustainable path in redefining green to meet the codes, while gradually rewriting the codes to be more green.'”

The Code Council has already initiated a Green Technical Plan that calls for every part of the organization to mobilize and address the Council’s expanding role in green and sustainable construction. Weiland pointed to the Board of Directors’ formation of a Sustainable Building Technology Committee, the new ICC Evaluation Service Sustainable Attributes Verification and Education Program and the new National Green Building Standard as examples of how the Council is emphasizing its commitment to social responsibility and expanding the boundaries of public safety.

Another key to implementing successful safety measures, Weiland said, will be the work of code officials, America’s First Preventers. “For a green building program to be successfully implemented,” he explained, “you will need to be the foot soldiers on the ground who do the heavy lifting to make it work—as you have done with every other meaningful advancement in building safety.

"We know public safety is no accident," Weiland concluded. "Standing behind every building is a team of code officials, firefighters, engineers, architects, designers, builders and many others that put their heart and soul into making buildings safe and strong. If it looks easy, it's only because you are so good at what you do."