GBI National Standard Released for Public Comment

In 2005, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited the Green Building Initiative (GBI) as a standards developer, and GBI began working to turn its green building rating system, Green Globes, into an ANSI-accredited standard (see

EBN

Vol. 14, No. 11). A draft of that standard, known as the GBI Proposed American National Standard—along with a life-cycle assessment (LCA) credit calculator and a water consumption calculator for use with the standard—has been released for public comment.

EBN Vol. 16, No. 3). The water calculator uses several factors—including user-entered information about plumbing fixtures, number of occupants, and hours of occupancy—to estimate total water usage. GBI will accept comments on the standard and the calculators through June 9, 2008. More information is available at www.thegbi.org.