Integrated Design Process Standard Approved

In July 2007 the Whole Systems Integrated Process Guide (WSIP) 2007 for Sustainable Buildings & Communities, ANSI/MTS Standard WSIP 2007, was approved by public ballot. “Everybody is coming to the realization that there is a pattern of practicing an integrated design process for buildings,” said Bill Reed, AIA, chair of the committee that developed the standard under the auspices of the Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability (MTS). The document, which has the blessing of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), codifies that pattern in the form of a specific integrated design process.

The process of getting the standard approved was smooth, according to Mike Italiano, head of MTS. The only objections came from respondents who didn’t understand that, as a guide, this is more qualitative than other standards, he reports. While the document has been approved and will soon be available for purchase from ANSI, according to Italiano, it is still rough. The practice it claims to define, for example, is labeled variously as “integration process,” “integrated process,” and “integrative process.” Reed and committee vice chair John Boecker, AIA, are producing a cleaner version, which should eventually replace the current document. Changes will not be substantive, according to Reed, so it shouldn’t require any additional balloting.