International Code Council and U.S. Green Building Council Form Strategic Alliance

The ICC and the USGBC recently entered into a memorandum of understand (MOU) memorializing their agreement to work together on public policy issues on which the interests of both organizations are aligned. The MOU acknowledges the ICC’s leading role in fostering safety for the built environment and the USGBC’s leading role in advocating sustainability in the building marketplace. Within these separate areas of expertise, the organizations have pledged to identify areas of mutual interest, to work together to leverage that interest, and thereby to maximize the efficient use of each organization’s resources.

The organizations have agreed to explore and implement business opportunities that could benefit both organizations, for example, joint training activities, certification programs for inspection personnel, and marketing efforts. Specifically, they intend to explore the joint development of “code compliance packages” to address designs and materials which present ongoing code approval problems in plan review or inspection.

The first initiative coming out of the MOU is an agreement to co-author and publish an introductory work on the subject of building codes and sustainability. The publication goal is December 2007. The entire MOU can be found here. (This entry published by Karen Carey, a member of Womble Carlyle's real estate development and construction practice group.)