Greenhouse gas evaluation standard under review

ASHRAE and the International Code Council have announced that an advisory public review is open for a proposed joint greenhouse gas (GHG) evaluation standard.

Proposed ASHRAE/ICC Standard 240P – Evaluating Greenhouse Gas (GHG) and Carbon Emissions in Building Design, Construction and Operation, aims to provide a methodology to quantify and document GHG emissions associated with buildings, building systems, and equipment over their life-cycle.

The standard will cover:

• Existing buildings, new buildings, groups of buildings, or portions of buildings
• Determination, including calculation methodology, and expression of the building(s) zero net GHG and zero net carbon dioxide emissions status for building operation
• GHG emissions associated with flows across the site boundary and offsite credited flows
• Embodied GHG emissions of building materials and systems.

Standard 240P will also offer procedures and minimum requirements for the quantification of embodied and operational GHG emissions including reporting and documenting.

A joint committee with wide array of expertise and representation from ASHRAE and the Code Council was approved in December last year to develop the standard. Since then, the committee has moved quickly to develop the draft.

“It is rare to have an advisory public review draft prepared for comment within essentially four months after the formation of standards committee,” says 2022–23 ASHRAE President Farooq Mehboob.

“The accelerated pace in which a draft of Standard 240P was developed speaks to the extraordinary technical knowledge and leadership of the committee and its chairs. ASHRAE remains committed to advancing effective building decarbonisation strategies, and were pleased to partner with the Code Council to develop this much-needed resource.”

“The International Code Council is pleased to partner with ASHRAE in the development of Standard 240P and acknowledges the exceptional work of the standards committee in providing their time and expertise to this process,” says Code Council CEO Dominic Sims.

“The Code Council is devoted to expanding on the tools needed to advance decarbonisation across the industry and this public review draft highlights our ongoing commitment to this work.”

The committee is seeking comments on proposed revisions to the standard’s title, purpose and scope, as well as the remaining content being proposed in the document. Specific questions are included in the document for stakeholder input.

The standard is open for comment until May 21, 2023. Drafts are posted and comments can be made at osr.ashrae.org

Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash