The plumbing provisions of the IAPMO Green Plumbing and Mechanical Code
Supplement (GPMCS) will be included as an Appendix to the 2012 edition of the
National Standard Plumbing Code.
The plumbing provisions of The
International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (
IAPMO)
Green Plumbing and Mechanical Code Supplement (GPMCS) will be included
as an Appendix to the 2012 edition of the National Standard Plumbing Code
published by the Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors (
PHCC) – National
Association.
The National Standard Plumbing Code
Committee voted unanimously to incorporate the provisions from the GPMCS in
order to provide a needed resource to plumbers, engineers, installers,
contractors and code officials tasked with designing, installing, inspecting or
adopting sustainable plumbing systems. The New Jersey PHCC Chapter and the New
Jersey Chapter of the American Society of Plumbing Engineers offered testimony
in support of the proposed change.
The GPMCS was developed as a tool to be
used as an overlay to any plumbing code, including the NSPC. It provides code
officials with comprehensive and progressive enforceable green code provisions
that help eliminate base line code barriers and provide the critical
information needed to assure that the sustainable construction practices being
incentivized by green rating programs such as USGBC’s LEED and Green Building
Initiative’s Green Globes are safe and reliable. Hence, the incorporation of
the GPMCS into the NSPC Appendix precisely fulfills the vision IAPMO
stakeholders embraced while developing the GPMCS.
The building codes are perhaps the
biggest hindrance to the construction of green buildings,” said
Dave
Viola, IAPMO director of Special Services and staff liaison to the
Green Technical Committee (GTC) that developed the GPMCS. “The NSPC Committee
took a huge step in eliminating these barriers by making available to NSPC code
users the very best in sustainable plumbing code provisions.”
With the addition of the GPMCS, the 2012
NSPC will contain energy and water conservation measures, efficient hot water
system design criteria and provisions addressing the safe design, installation
and maintenance of alternate water source systems, including harvested
rainwater, gray water and reclaimed water for commercial and residential
buildings. The NSPC is adopted and enforced in the States of Maryland and New Jersey.
The industry made it clear that a need
exists for consensus-based code language that provides needed direction for
water and energy saving in the built environment,” said
Sean Cleary, IAPMO
field manager. “The IAPMO Green Plumbing and Mechanical Code Supplement
inclusion into the NSPC Appendix provides prescriptive industry language that
will allow adopting jurisdictions to be at the forefront of Green Building
within the United States.”
Source:
IAPMOLinks
