The Green Building Initiative (GBI) has successfully completed the first American National Standard for Commercial Green Building.
The standard, officially named ANSI/GBI 01-2010: Green Building Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings, approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), ensures that building project leaders who seek green building certification can choose from a wide array of products and materials that qualify for sustainable credits. Moreover, it helps simplify the task of finding these qualified products by providing a user-friendly list of credible third-party certification programs.
“Concerning indoor air quality in particular, this new ANSI standard opens up new opportunities for architects, designers, specifiers, builders, contractors, and developers to find and incorporate third-party-certified, low-emitting products and materials,” says Dr. Marilyn Black, founder of GEI.
Derived from the Green Globes environmental design and assessment rating system for New Construction, the standard was developed using ANS’'s consensus-based guidelines, which ensure a balanced, transparent, and inclusive process. The standard received formal approval on March 24, 2010, and will now go through a pilot program.