Green Framing is as much an attitude as it is an act of doing certain forms of framing. There are some framing designs and materials that are considered “green" but to be a green framer it takes a belief that you want to be a part of the global effort to reduce our effects on the ecosystem. In this chapter I will show you how the green movement is affecting the materials we use and in some cases the way we frame. I will also give you a basic understanding of the construction industry efforts to become green. In additions to this, I will discuss some behaviors that if you so choose will make you a part of the movement.
A little history is probably a good place to start.
It’s hard to say when the first discussions about how the human race is effecting the environment occurred and what we can do to our building practices to prevent ill effects, but Optimum Value Engineering, which has become known as Advanced Framing, was one of the first applications of green building. Advanced framing is an effort to conserve energy by altering framing techniques. It was soon realized, however that an overall building effort was needed to direct the construction industry in order to achieve the best effects. In 2000 the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) was formed and they created LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) which is a construction and design industry joint effort to define and certify construction using green methods. The LEED program creates a tool for measuring the green building effectiveness by assigning credits in six areas: Sustainable Sites; Water Efficiency; Energy and Atmosphere; Materials and Resources; Indoor Environmental Quality; and Innovation and Design Process. Credits are totaled for individual jobs allowing for certification at different levels including, Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. These certifications can be used in marketing programs.
LEED is an excellent construction — and design- oriented program to promote green building, however, it is a new and separate organization requiring its own fees and training. In 2008, the International Code Council (ICC) and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) came out with the National Green Building Standard ICC700-2008. Designed to guide the residential construction industry in green building, this standard was similar to the LEED system. It provided a rating system of environmental categories similar to LEED and performance levels of Bronze, Silver, Gold or Emerald. The ICC700-2008 is a good guide, but is hard to regulate.
In 2010, the ICC published the International Green Construction Code (IGCC), the first ever compilation of international green building codes and standards. USGBC along with other agencies worked to help develop the IGCC. USCBC’s LEED program set the format for guiding the design and construction industry in green building; however, it is a voluntary program and does not have jurisdictional enforcement capabilities.
The IGCC has similar topics for its five main content chapters, however, once the IGCC is accepted by a jurisdiction it becomes law for that jurisdiction. Unique to the IGCC for the other building codes is a section of regulations that relates to individual jurisdictions, so that each jurisdiction has to select from a group of regulations as to which ones they will require. There is an elective section where jurisdiction is required to determine the amount of a list of elective requirements that must be met.
It’s all a bit confusing and most of it does not apply directly to framing, however some items will. For example, Chapter 5 of the IGCC, “Material Resource Conservation and Efficiency," notes a requirement to develop a construction material and waste management plan that requires not less than 50 percent of non-hazardous construction waste to be diverted from landfills.
Green building is wide spread in the construction process, however green framing is limited. Four parts of green framing that I will discuss are as follows:
1. Greening Framing Feeling
2. Advanced Framing
3. Material Selection
4. Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs)
