The International Code Council recently held its 2019 annual conference in Las Vegas. As part of ICC’s government relations forum during a panel called Up-to-Date Building Codes Provide Significant Mitigation Savings, I discussed aspects of the Multihazard Mitigation Council’s study Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves. The panel also included Jeff… more

Computer scientist Andrew Tanenbaum has said: “The good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.” For better or worse, Tanenbaum’s quote ties into a project of the National Institute of Building Sciences buildingSMART alliance (bSa), which aims to update the National Building Information Modeling (BIM) Standard for the… more

A year ago – just last November – California met its deadly Camp Fire. It was the most destructive wildfire in California history, claiming 86 lives and covering an area of more than 150,000 acres. It’s more important than ever that we be ready for anything. October is National Fire Prevention month. The goal of this campaign – and particularly… more

It’s Campus Sustainability Month. Throughout October, there are a host of events tied to greener solutions and sustainability of our nation’s college campuses. Events are aimed at engaging and inspiring “incoming students and other campus stakeholders to become sustainability change agents,” says The Association for the Advancement of… more

It’s not every day that you gather a room full of female executives to talk about tough issues like diversity, inclusion, and management in the nonprofit built environment. But that’s exactly what happened Friday, Oct. 4, when the National Institute of Building Sciences hosted the first Women Executives in Building Summit. “It starts with us,”… more