The relationship between resilience and sustainability was discussed in an earlier column, and it was suggested that sustainability is an important component for a truly resilient building but that it was not the whole picture nor was it the primary resilience consideration for most buildings. The recent call for public comments on proposed changes to the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) provides an opportunity to revisit this topic and to discuss, in greater detail, a few of the issues raised.
The IECC recently changed the process by which modifications are made away from the traditional code process to something similar to how technical standards are maintained. That process involves a committee that makes the final decisions but with input from any interested party. The recently closed period for proposed changes resulted in 258 proposals for the commercial energy portion and 168 on the residential side that cover a wide range of topics. In this column, I will discuss the changes to the commercial code related to air barriers, on-site energy, and lighting controls in terms of their relationship to enhanced building resilience.