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Institute Board Approves NBIMS Rules of Governance
Don’t Delay! Institute Annual Meeting Just Days Away
Award Named for Gerald Jones
Meet the Coordinating Council
Independent Panels to Review Data Used for FEMA Flood Maps
Scientific and Technical Experts Wanted
ANSI Releases Report on Emergency Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities
BETEC Air Barrier Workshop Seminars Available Online
Cutting out the Cut Sheet: Attend the SPie Demonstration Dec. 6
Robert Redford, USGBC Convene Greening of America’s Schools Summit
December 5-9
Buildings XI
Clearwater, FL
December 6-9
National Institute of Building Sciences Annual Meeting/Ecobuild America
Washington, DC
December 8
Consultative Council Meeting
Washington, DC
December 8
Coordinating Council Meeting
Washington, DC
December 8
Annual Awards Reception/Dinner
Washington, DC
December 8-10
Green California Schools Summit
Pasadena, CA
December 9
Board of Directors Meeting
Washington, DC
January 12-15, 2011
NAHB International Builders Show
Orlando, FL
January 29 - February 2, 2011
ASHRAE Winter Conference
Las Vegas, NV
March 22-26, 2011
International Concrete Expo
Las Vegas, NV
May 1-3, 2011
NAHB National Green Building Conference
Salt Lake City, UT
May 12-15, 2011
AIA 2011 National Convention and Design Exposition
New Orleans, LA
May 25-28, 2011
EDRA42 Chicago
Chicago, IL
June 5-8, 2011
North American Masonry Conference
Minneapolis, MN
June 12-15, 2011
NFPA Conference and Expo
Boston, MA
June 20-23, 2011
National Healthy Homes Conference
Denver, CO
June 25-29
ASHRAE Annual Conference
Montreal, Canada
June 26-28, 2011
BOMA International Conference
Washington, DC
September 25-29, 2011
IAPMO 82nd Annual Education and Business Conference
San Antonio, TX
Green
Schools as High Performance Learning Facilities
Published by the Institute's National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities.
Fall 2010 issue now online! Journal of Building Information Modeling (JBIM)
Journal of Building Enclosure Design (JBED)
NFRC Approved as Certification Body for ENERGY STAR
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) as an EPA-recognized Certification Body for the ENERGY STAR®
Program. NFRC, provider of the only independent rating and labeling system for the energy performance of windows, doors and skylights, is one of only six EPA-recognized Certification Bodies listed on the EPA website.
Read the release.
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November 2010 |
Institute Board Approves NBIMS Rules of Governance
The buildingSMART alliance’s Project Committee now has official Rules of Governance to follow when developing the
National Building Information Modeling Standard – United StatesTM (NBIMS), Version 2. The Institute’s Board of Directors approved the Rules during its September Board meeting. The Rules establish the procedures for the development of the standard and the parameters of the revision process. With these procedures in place, work on the open consensus BIM standard can proceed. The standard is expected to be completed by the end of 2011.
Read more.
Don’t Delay! Institute Annual Meeting Just Days Away
Time is running out! The National Institute of Building Sciences Annual Meeting, to be held in conjunction with Ecobuild America, is less than a week away. The weeklong event begins December 6. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to see the Institute in action. Be sure to use code NIBS20 when registering to receive a 20% discount.
View
schedule of
events.
Register now.
Award Named for Gerald Jones
 Chair of the ICC Awards Committee John LaTorra (right) recognizes Gerald H. Jones (left) during the ICC Awards Ceremony in Charlotte, N.C. ICC renamed its Code Official of the Year Award in honor of Jones’ lifetime of achievement.
Gerald H. Jones, Past Chairman of the National Institute of Building Sciences Board of Directors, received some well-deserved recognition last month. The International Code Council (ICC) renamed its Code Official of the Year Award for him, in honor of his lifetime of achievement in public safety.
Jones, who worked to standardize codes across the United States, was instrumental in establishing the Building Seismic Safety Council and drafting the initial seismic safety codes referenced in the
International Building Code. Today, his work is used as the basis for seismic safety codes across the United States as well as internationally. In addition to being the Institute’s Chair, he served on the Boards of both the Multihazard Mitigation Council and Building Seismic Safety Council. In his day job, Jones, now retired, was the Building Codes Administrator of Kansas City, Missouri, and Overland Park, Kansas.
The Gerald H. Jones Code Official of the Year Award is given to individuals whose contributions to the code enforcement profession are meritorious, demonstrate professional abilities, and which are recognized as an example to the code community.
Its first recipient was Jay Elbettar, Building Director for the city of Newport Beach, California.
Read more.
Meet the Coordinating Council
 The National Institute of Building Sciences membership is at the heart of this organization’s success. Involved in the Institute’s numerous councils, committees and projects, our members participate in the detailed processes of task forces and working groups. The Coordinating Council works to harmonize efforts among the various Institute programs to enhance synergies across programs. In this issue, we focus on the Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG) Advisory Committee. Dennis Talton serves as the WBDG chair.
Read more about Talton.
Independent Panels to Review Data Used for FEMA Flood Maps
Beginning November 1, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is making available an independent, third party process to aid in the review and resolution of conflicting data related to Flood Insurance Rate Maps. Scientific Resolution Panels (SRPs) will serve as independent scientific bodies to resolve issues when conflicting technical data is presented.
FEMA has contracted with the National Institute of Building Sciences to establish the SRPs. The Institute will develop a list of pre-qualified technical experts from a wide spectrum of backgrounds related to flooding. Once convened, the SRPs will review the conflicting data and determine which represents the best science available.
Read the release.
Scientific and Technical Experts Wanted
The Institute is seeking qualified scientific and technical professionals from the public, private and academic sectors to serve on Scientific Resolution Panels (SRPs) responsible for resolving community challenges to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program’s flood maps. Interested professionals must have at least 10 years experience and expertise related to the development of flood elevations and Flood Insurance Rate Maps. Selected applicants will be placed on a shortlist of qualified experts and may expect to serve on one to two panels per year. Services will be compensated.
Learn how to apply.
ANSI Releases Report on Emergency Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities
For the millions of Americans with special needs, emergencies and natural disasters present a unique challenge. Catastrophic events such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the 9/11 attacks revealed the crucial need for standards and other means of guidance to enhance emergency preparedness for persons with special needs. In an effort to advance standardization efforts in this area, the American National Standards Institute Homeland Security Standards Panel (ANSI-HSSP) has released a final workshop report outlining recommendations for the timely development of standards to support more effective emergency preparedness for all.
The report consolidates the panel’s findings from a series of 2010 workshops that examined various aspects of the standards and codes needed for reducing barriers to accessibility in emergencies. Technical experts, members of the standards community, code officials, federal agencies and disability advocacy groups participated in the ANSI-HSSP workshop series, including a representative from the National Institute of Building Sciences.
Download the report.
BETEC Air Barrier Workshop Seminars Available Online
Didn’t make it to the “Why Green Buildings Cannot Be Built without Air Barrier Systems” workshop in October? No worries. The proceedings of the Washington, D.C., workshop, sponsored by the Institute’s Building Enclosure and Technology Environment Council (BETEC) and High Performance Building Council (HPBC), and the Air Barrier Association of America, are now available online.
Efficient air barrier systems are essential to building enclosures. Poorly designed systems allow precipitation and climate to degrade buildings over time, leading to shorter building longevity, energy inefficiency and poor habitability. The purpose of the workshop was to highlight conceptual high-performance air barrier systems and underline the benefits of high-performance air barrier systems in terms of sustainability and durability.
More than 115 people attended the workshop, where experts, researchers, scientists and manufacturers gave 13 presentations over the course of the day, all on the subject of the role of air barrier systems in green building design.
View the PowerPoint presentations.
Cutting out the Cut Sheet: Attend the SPie Demonstration Dec. 6
It won’t be long until product specification sheets are a thing of the past. A new, easier way to select products, the Specifiers’ Properties information exchange (SPie), is helping manufacturers to deliver product information to specifiers and designers in an easy-to-compare, digital format. SPie is a joint project of the Army Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center (ERDC), the Specifications Consultants in Independent Practice (SCIP), and the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI),
with input from manufacturers and trade associations. It will allow standardized product specifications to be readily available in building information modeling (BIM). Specifiers and designers can witness a free demonstration of how SPie works on December 6 from 1:00 – 3:00 pm, during the National Institute of Building Sciences Annual Meeting, held in conjunction with Ecobuild America in Washington, D.C.
Find out how to register.
Robert Redford, USGBC Convene Greening of America’s Schools Summit
Actor/activist Robert Redford and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) convened the first Greening of America’s Schools Summit at the Sundance Resort in Utah in early November. The goal of the summit: to begin a dialogue on creating a sustainable education infrastructure and to establish a roadmap by which all children in the United States will attend sustainable schools in this generation.
Participants included local leaders, experts and environmental activists from across the country. Among the group of 45 attendees was the Institute’s own National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities Director Judy Marks. Mayors and school superintendants from ten cities, including Los Angeles, used the intellectual resources at the summit to formulate plans for establishing sustainable schools in their localities.
The summit represents the first major event for the Center of Green Schools, an organization founded as part of the USGBC that focuses on sustainable construction of educational facilities at the local level. As a result of the summit, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the USGBC are to release a joint publication January next year on the subject of green schools.
View event coverage in Architectural Record.
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