CSI green news

The Construction Specifications Institute, Alexandria, Va., has introduced GreenFormat, a Web-based format that provides a standardized framework for identifying the sustainable properties of building products. It was developed in collaboration with specifiers; product manufacturers; Building- Green LLC, Battleboro, Vt.; and the Charles Pankow Foundation, Claremont, Calif. Product listings in GreenFormat, which can be found at www.greenformat.com, are organized by MasterFormat divisions in a spec-friendly layout. The format’s categories focus on topics important to design and product selection decisions. To enter products in the database, manufacturers complete an online questionnaire that collects sustainable information about their products. Data from the completed questionnaires are then displayed in a standardized manner. More than 100 manufacturers already participate in GreenFormat. CSI is offering manufacturers a free account and product listing on GreenFormat if they sign up by Jan. 1, 2009. In other news, CSI co-sponsored a new white paper written by Elizabeth Weiss, managing principal, Gorman Richardson Architects, Hopkinton, Mass., that discusses what design professionals can do about climate change. “To me, climate change is the single largest issue facing the nation today,” Weiss wrote in the paper. “We must make dramatic changes immediately in order to have hope that our quality of life will not change for the worse over the next decades due to climate change.” Hundreds of AEC professionals who responded to CSI’s exclusive survey on climate change expressed concern about global warming, as well. They want to do something about climate change, the survey found, but may not necessarily know how they can make a difference. The newly published white paper provides concrete ways in which AEC professionals can have a positive role in addressing climate change. The white paper includes an analysis of the most rigorous scientific study of global warming, the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with particular attention to the built environment. It also includes a review of 34 national, regional, state and local climate change initiatives and their impact on the AEC industry; practical steps AEC professionals can take to cut greenhouse gas emissions in buildings using well-known technologies and methods; and a detailed Action Plan—eight recommendations and 22 specific action items for AEC professionals and firms to implement in their work.