ASHRAE, the U.S. Green Building Council and the Illuminating Engineering Society say they will draft new standards for green buildings.

ASHRAE/IES/USGBC Standard 189.1, Standard for the Design of High Performance Green Buildings, contains minimum requirements for the siting, design and construction of high-performance green buildings in support of reducing building energy, resource consumption and other environmental impacts, according to the Standard.

It also contains requirements for the use of renewable energy systems such as solar, wind and geothermal.

The revisions come after the Standard 189.1 Committee recently considered a proposal to add biomass to the definition of renewable energy systems. The committee voted not to accept the proposal. They did say, however, that they intend to work on a definition of biomass as well as requirements for the use of biomass in order to meet renewable energy requirements of the standard, according to chair Andy Persily.

Persily also says that the committee is committed to developing a responsible approach that is also technically sound to include biomass as a renewable.

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