ENTERPRISE GREEN COMMUNITIES 2020
Here is the rest of what I learned about the new EGC and in case you missed Part 1 read it here!
Water
The water criteria has been revised to not only focus in water conservations, but also include water quality.
The water conservation criteria had been updated to be more flexible through a calculator approach that takes into account potential residents into consideration when developing the projects water conservation strategy. All projects are not required to reduce water consumption by at least 20% compared to baseline with water efficient fixtures were applicable.
4.3 Water Quality
Water Quality has been added and includes 3 criteria:
- Replacing lead service lines is mandatory for Moderate and Substantial Rehabs of buildings build before 1986 and optional for all other building types.
- Developing a legionella water management program is mandatory for multifamily buildings with either a cooling tower, a centralized hot water system or are more than 10 stories in height.
- Optional criteria to test water from dwelling unit faucets
Operating Energy
This category has been revised to now include a new level of certification called the EGC Certification Plus level.
The Criteria has mandatory standards for new and rehab projects, but it also includes additional optional standards to reduce energy usage and incorporate renewable energy sources. Projects that achieve the higher criteria will be awarded the EGC Certification Plus.
All projects are required to report their Energy Use Intensity using EGC develop templates.
Materials
This category has been revised and now includes a 3 new optional criteria sections:
6.1 Ingredient Transparency for Material Health
6.2 Recycle Content and Ingredient Transparency
6.3 Chemical Hazard Optimization
6.4 Healthy Material Selection
Healthy Material Selection has been updated to show more mandatory and optional material recommendation and requirements. One notable change is to Interior Paints, Coating Primers and Wall Paper Category. Where 2015 EGC call for a certain VOC content threshold according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District Standards, 2020 now requires that VOC emissions are verified through the CDPH Standard Method
Healthy Living Environment
The category has been revised and split into 3 sections to help users navigate through the requirements.
7.6 Smoke-Free Policy
Smoke-Free Policy criteria has been revised to require a smoke-free building policy for all building common spaces in a property, with additional points if a policy is apply to the full priority.
7.8 Dehumidification
New mandatory criteria for Dehumidification has been added to for properties in Climate Zones 1A to 4A.
7.11 Active Design: Promoting Physical Activity
7.12 Beyond ADA: Promoting Physical Activity
7.13 Healing-Center Design
Promoting Physical Activity, Promoting Physical Activity and Promoting Physical Activity are new criteria that have been added to promote health through design, all projects are required choose and implement one of this triad.
Operations, Maintenance + Resident Engagement
Operations, Maintenance + Resident Engagement
8.5 Energy and Water Data Collection and Monitoring
This category has some minor revisions, the most significant change was to the Energy and Water Data Collection and Monitoring mandatory requirement. The new approach provides 4 different methods a team can use to report the buildings utility expenditures.
EGC + WELL
One of the most exciting developments for EGC is that there is now automatic co-certification with the International Well Building Institute with no additional action.
Thanks for learning with us!
Ivan Patino | Architectural Designer
28 APRIL 2021
