[Washington, DC]- The Window and Door Manufacturers Association (WDMA) secured initial approval of its key proposed amendments to the first edition of the International Code Council's (ICC) International Green Construction Code (IgCC) during hearings conducted by the ICC last week in Dallas, TX.

WDMA's approved amendments significantly improve the IgCC by limiting the scope of the IgCC to commercial construction, and removing onerous requirements such as those for comprehensive building service life plans and the installation of permanent shading devices on the exterior of buildings.  WDMA was also successful in the removal of provisions that required buildings to be constructed with permanent shading

"WDMA's proposals, which received broad support at the hearings, improve the IgCC by exempting most residential construction in-line with the original intent of the IgCC, which was to cover commercial construction," said Jeff Inks, WDMA vice president of code and regulatory affairs. "This will avoid conflicts that would be created in jurisdictions that may adopt the IgCC, but already have or wish to establish residential green building programs based on the National Green Building Standard, LEED or other criteria"

WDMA's proposals also improve the code by eliminating mandatory building service life requirements which would have mandated the development of comprehensive 60-year "Building Service Life Plans," for every building which included minimum 40-year service life requirements for fenestration.  WDMA's amendment makes them an elective based upon the intended service life of the building and building assemblies rather than subjective minimums such as 40 or 60 years.

In addition, WDMA's approved amendment eliminating mandatory permanent shading requirements removes significant additional and unnecessary costs to building construction that only discourage the use of dynamic glazing and other innovative products because no credit for their use is given.  Permanent shading would have been required for east, south and west facing windows and doors in addition to the already stringent requirements for them so there would be no incentive for the use dynamic glazing.

Other beneficial amendments based on WDMA proposals and those submitted by other stakeholders impacting the window, door and skylight industry include the removal of unjustified exterior sound transmission requirements for windows and doors and clarification of criteria for required environmental friendly building materials.