Big Barriers to Living Buildings: Help for Approval Seekers

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Big Barriers to Living BuildingsHelp for
Approval Seekers
April 17, 2008 - Vancouver, BC David
Eisenberg Director Development Center for
Appropriate Technology
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Overview

• I'm going to give my dense, quick overview of the
  current state of codes and regulations in the
  larger context of the Living Building Challenge
• Then I'll give a brief overview of the White
  Paper on Code Barriers to the Living Building
  Challenge that we are currently developing
• And then I'll share some observations and a bit
  about how you can help
• First, why we need the Living Building Challenge

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This is Your House on Plugs
This is Your House
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This, however, is Our Home
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This is OUR Current Situation
We're working within a maze of varying regulatory
structures using often conflicting and
disconnected minimum standards to control what
gets built We're designing and trying to
build projects that typically easily surpass
those minimums while addressing a set of enormous
risks that have yet to be incorporated into the
regulatory framework
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This is OUR Current Situation
We use unfamiliar methods to achieve these higher
goals - so the regulatory system tends to impede
our projects And, it's not actually a "system."
Regulatory responsibility/authority is broken
into different jurisdictions, agencies, and
departments, with rules, codes and standards
varying from place to placewith approvals nested
but not necessarily linked at each level.
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Site and Building Level
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Neighborhood Level
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City Level
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County Level
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State Level
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National, North American International Levels
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A Couple More Problems
Codes and regulations are reactions to disasters,
failures, or major past problems. Their intent is
to keep bad things from recurring by imposing a
set of minimum standards. It's logical,
important and insufficient. A risk-averse mindset
tends to view change (the unfamiliar) as at least
as dangerous as known risks. So the regulatory
mindset tends to be nearly as effective at
preventing the best things as the worst.
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As Important, it Looks Back and Down
The focus stays on the Known and on
Minimums. There's no built-in forward-looking,
problem-seeking capability to address
larger-pattern, systemic risk or risks of a new
kind. When such risks do arise, the system is
often slow (or worse) in recognizing and starting
to deal with them. The system is also typically
under-funded and under-staffed at every level to
deal effectively with change and building new
capacity.
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Buildings are Complex Systems of Systems

• English does not contain a suitable word for
  "system of problems." Therefore I have had to
  coin one. I choose to call such a system a
  "mess." The solution to a mess can seldom be
  obtained by independently solving each of the
  problems of which it is composed. - Russell
  L. Ackoff
• And perhaps more importantly
• Optimizing components in isolation tends to
  pessimize the whole system.
• - Paul Hawken, Amory L. Hunter Lovins

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Sometimes a Bigger Box IS Better

• We hear that we need to think "outside the box"
  to deal with our problems today.
• But it's a process -
• expand your field of view,
• get out of the box you're in
• into the next bigger box.

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It's Always BOTH Details AND Big Picture

• It's critical to always know
• your frame of reference -
• are you working in the
• details or big picture?
• Past, present or future?
• Keep shifting your focus
• back and forth.
• That's the only way to keep
• your work in perspective and proportion
• to see both the things and the
• relationships between them.

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The Purpose of Building Codes

• International Building Code (USA) - 2000 edition
• 101.3 The purpose of this code is to establish
  the minimum requirements to safeguard the public
  health, safety and general welfare through
  structural strength, means of egress facilities,
  stability, sanitation, adequate light and
  ventilation, energy conservation, and safety to
  life and property from fire and other hazards
  attributed to the built environment.

Big Picture in White - Details in Blue
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What's Protected and What's at RiskNow?

• Modern building codes enable us to design and
  build structures that are safe for their
  occupants, making it seem that we've eliminated
  or greatly reduced the risks associated with
  buildings.

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What's Protected and What's at RiskNow?

• We've just moved those risks in space and time
• away from the building site, and
• - into the future.

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Big Problems Hidden in Plain View
Looking at buildings through codes has been like
looking through a microscope. The individual,
building-related risks filled the field of view.
But, it's like we've dealt with risk with
tweezers, while creating orders-of-magnitude
greater, generalized risk for everyone,
including all future generations.
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Risk - The Bigger Picture
Risk - Through the Microscope of Codes
Risks to Future Generations
Climate Impact
Resource Depletion
Fire Safety Structural Integrity Means of
Egress Light Ventilation Heat Water
Wastewater Electrical Gas Energy Efficiency
Fire Safety Structural Integrity Means of
Egress Light Ventilation Heat Water
Wastewater Electrical Gas Energy Efficiency
Dependence on Non-Renewable Energy
Embodied Energy
Pollution
Loss of Habitat
Loss of Biodiversity
Toxicity of Materials
Nutrification of Water
Loss of Agricultural Land
Heat Island Effect
Increased Transportation
Externalized Costs to Society
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Risk - The Bigger Picture
Risks to Future Generations
Climate Impact
Resource Depletion
Fire Safety Structural Integrity Means of
Egress Light Ventilation Heat Water
Wastewater Electrical Gas Energy Efficiency
Fire Safety Structural Integrity Means of
Egress Light Ventilation Heat Water
Wastewater Electrical Gas Energy Efficiency
Dependence on Non-Renewable Energy
Embodied Energy
Pollution
Loss of Habitat
Loss of Biodiversity
Toxicity of Materials
Nutrification of Water
Loss of Agricultural Land
Heat Island Effect
Increased Transportation
Externalized Costs to Society
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We've Designed a Pessimizing System

• To truly optimize buildings requires considering
  the whole system of systems in design and
  regulation.
• To achieve that, codes could be a set of
  principles for what buildings should and
  shouldn't do.
• A good first (not only) principle would be a
  corollary of the Hippocratic Oath buildings
  should first do no harm.
• That requires looking at the impacts from their
  entire lifecycles

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Acquisition of Resources through Demolition
Beyond
Which LBC projects already do
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We Want What They Wantand More!

• We need to recognize and help the regulators see
  that we share common goals. We don't want to
  create unsafe projects either.
• But we have a bigger definition of what is
  required to safeguard public health, safety and
  welfare from hazards attributed to the built
  environmentby examining and attempting to
  balance the whole risk profile of a project.

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Bigger-Picture Framework to Address Risk
www.footprintnetwork.org
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What if the Minimum is the Maximum?

• And here's the BIGGER QUESTION
• What if the magnitude of the large-scale risks
  we've created while looking through that
  microscope means that minimum requirements to
  "safeguard public health, safety and welfare from
  hazards attributed to the built environment" now
  mean that we must push the envelope at the top
  rather just dealing with least common
  denominators?
• What if the minimum now is striving to achieve
  everything we can do?

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Time to Evolve
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A Big Question
How do we create a "regulatory system" that meets
our approval? The Living Building Challenge
presents a unique opportunity to co-evolve the
regulatory system as we're evolving our human
designed and built systems to fit harmoniously
into the natural systems we inhabit.
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Beyond Risk Management
Truly restorative and regenerative projects
demand a fundamentally different mindset a
commitment to honor the essence of each place we
inhabit. This is about relationships not just
managing risks.
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But When We Do Consider Risks
What Risk? Where? To Whom? When? How
Long? How? How Much? Is It Reversible? Is It
Necessary? At What Cost and to Whom? (not just
monetary)
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This is a New Starting Point

• We will need to acknowledge that accelerating
  rates of change will increase certain kinds of
  risk.
• So, how do we create an appropriately balanced,
  flexible, and responsive regulatory system that
  doesn't impede the crucial changes that we need,
  or compromise public health and safety?

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Codes are a Gate, Officials the Gatekeepers

• We have to invite the regulatory community into
  our work and involve ourselves in theirs so that
  together we can figure out how to do this.
• For changes in the built environment, codes are
  the gate and code officials are the gatekeepers.
• The solutions are going to be more community- and
  place-based. They'll require more local knowledge
  and intelligence. Information technology can help
  more appropriately fit the regulations to the
  place-based needs.

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This is a New Starting Point

• Demonstration and experimental projects seeking
  to achieve these higher goals need a regulatory
  structure that supports multiple iterations, with
  appropriate review and monitoring to provide
  real-time research results.
• This calls for a new partnership to accelerate
  learning about how these systems work and fail in
  the real world, in a process that transforms
  practice as rapidly as possible.

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An Example

• Imagine if plan reviewers and other regulators
  were trained in integrated design in order to
• have the benefit of their knowledge,
  perspective and concerns throughout the critical
  design development phase instead of afterward,
  and
• enhance their understanding of the deeper
  goals, critical relationships, and the importance
  of maintaining the integrity of integrated
  designs through the approvals process, not to
  mention the value of embedding approvals
  solutions into the design process

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Let's Inspire them!
What we have now in the US A platform The
audience A strong message I have a regular
column in the ICC magazine, Building Safety
Journal. My first column frames this shift as
"The Challenge of a Lifetime" essentially calling
them to do the most important work of their
careers!
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Building Police or Community Resource?

• Great things happen when building officials and
  other regulators go from viewing their role as
  policing the bottom
• to
• seeing themselves as community resources enabling
  the best things to happen while also preventing
  the worst.
• That shift in thinking opens the door to a deeper
  conversation about these larger pattern risks and
  how to deal with them.

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And things are moving
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SoThe LBC White Paper Project
The LBC Code Barriers White Paper is a 'next
step' work-in-progress, to identify and analyze
code and other regulatory barriers to LBC
projects and suggest ways those barriers can be
addressed. Larger and longer-term goals for this
work support the larger goals of the LBC - to
help accelerate shifting thinking and practice to
the next level.
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The LBC White Paper Project
We see that LBC criteria, values and goals are
aligned with most regulations, but are larger and
have a different focus. Avoiding risk and
minimizing harm are baseline givens, not end
goals. The LBC seeks total system health,
vitality, and responsible stewardship for
comprehensive, long-term benefit extending far
beyond site boundaries and normal
time-scales. Through the white paper we hope to
help the regulatory community understand this
alignment.
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The LBC White Paper Project
The barriers are diverse and complex falling
into different categories and types - from
technical and specific to abstract and
process-based from problems imbedded in the
regulations and codes to things that are missing
in them and from a lack of consistency,
coordination, information and capacity to
inter-personal, attitudinal and relational
issues. Here are some we've identified
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The LBC White Paper Project

• Structural/Goals/Philosophical Barriers
• Lack of clearly Articulated Overarching Societal
  Goals Related to Sustainability
• Conflicting Goals and Standards
• Multi-jurisdictional, Intra-jurisdictional, and
  Inter-agency Issues and Conflicts
• Lack of Coordination Between Agencies
• Non-Systemic Nature of Regulatory Process
  jeopardizing Integrity of Integrated Design
  Projects
• Process Barriers including Lags, Sequencing and
  Timing of Approvals and Appeals
• Inconsistent Interpretation and Enforcement
• Lack of Information, Education and Training
• Attitudinal Issues
• Capacity Issues

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The LBC White Paper Project

• Technical Barriers in Existing Regulations
• Provisions that Need to be Changed or Updated
• Provisions that Need to be Eliminated
• Provisions that Need to be Added
• Creation of New Barriers through the Addition of
  New Provisions that Add Barriers or Burdens to
  Current Sustainable Practices

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The LBC White Paper Project

• Financially-Based Technical Barriers
• Lack of funding for staffing, training and
  research for advancing regulations/practice in
  regulatory agencies.
• Costly Industrially-driven Technical Thresholds
  for Research and Testing of Innovative and
  especially Low-Tech/Ultra-Low-Impact, Historic or
  Traditional, Non-Proprietary, Non-Industrial,
  Locally or Site-Harvested Materials and Systems
• Other Regulatory Financial/Cost Barriers
• Financial Cost Barriers Incurred as a Result of
  Regulatory Delays
• Financial Cost Barriers Resulting from not
  getting Credit for Independence from
  Infrastructure Services

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The LBC White Paper Project
We have developed a questionnaire (actually
several versions for different groups) that will
be available online. We're seeking information on
specific and general barriers related to each of
the prerequisites in the LBC as well as
information about exemplary regulations,
successful strategies and precedents, and useful
resources. The results will be analyzed and
shared in the white paper.
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The LBC White Paper Project
The Questionnaire Might this prerequisite
present any code, regulatory or approval barriers
or challenges for LBC projects? Y/N If yes, at
what level of regulation or code might you
anticipate barriers? (Check all that
apply) Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions
(CCRs) ___ Local Building and Energy
Codes___ Local Zoning Codes___ Other Local
Regulations or Laws___ State/Provincial/Territoria
l Building Codes___ State/Provincial/Territorial
Land Use Codes___ Other State/Provincial/Territori
al Regulations or Laws___ Regional Laws,
Regulations or Agreements___ Federal Laws or
Regulations___ Inter-jurisdictional
issues___ Intra-jurisdictional/multi-agency
issues___ Out-of-sequence approvals or need for
simultaneous approvals from different
agencies___ Other___ Continued
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The LBC White Paper Project
Questionnaire continued Please describe the
nature and specifics of the barrier(s) or
challenge(s)please include details on the
following for each barrier jurisdictional level
or levels specific codes, regulations or laws
including code version agencies involved if
inter- or intra-jurisdictional and other
information pertinent to understanding the
barrier Can you suggest changes to approvals
process to overcome the barriers Additional
comments or suggestions Continued
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The LBC White Paper Project
Questionnaire continued We encourage you to
provide detailed information in relation to the
barriers anticipated or encountered, including
digital versions (scans, PDFs, photographs,
graphics please try to keep file sizes below
5MB where possible and inquire first before
uploading or sending larger files). We are also
very interested in receiving approvals and
appeals process diagrams and flowcharts, for the
entire or specific parts of the approvals and
appeals process, for projects of all sizes and
types, and in different jurisdictions. We hope to
develop a small library of such process "maps" to
help us all better understand where the barriers
and problems are and how best they can be
addressed. Please consider providing such
information along with identified barriers
related to sequencing, multi-agency or
multi-jurisdictional, and similar barriers.
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The LBC White Paper Project
We are doing a set of case studies of selected
LBC projects, as well as a few non-LBC projects
that have pushed similar boundaries, in order to
provide more in-depth information and insights
into the barriers, their consequences, and
solutions and work-arounds. We are also
conducting a series of interviews with a wide
range of people knowledgeable and experienced
with LBC and similar projects and systems. And we
are conducting a literature search for related
materials.
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An Example a Water Approvals Maze
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Initial Observations
What is becoming apparent in the course of the
research is that it will take much more than just
"fixing" or "greening the codes." There is much
work to be done in addressing the kinds of things
we've just listed, but there is a need for a much
more systemic basis for the whole regulatory and
approvals process. The transformation that is
taking place in the design, development and
building communities must be paralleled in the
regulatory realm.
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Initial Observations
The context is crucial. In the same way that we
are seeking to incorporate the larger set of
risks, recognition of unintended consequences,
and higher goals and aspirations into our designs
and projects, we must begin to educate and
support the regulatory entities in following this
same path. It may be rocky at the start but it's
crucial and essential work we're all called to
help achieve. Because the LBC is not the end but
the start of a new way of thinking and acting
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This is a Trajectory not a Target
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It is Going to Take US

• Our voices, knowledge, expertise and concerns are
  needed in the regulatory development process.
• In most cases, the people making the rules would
  like to do the right thing - but in this realm,
  they don't know what that is. We may not know
  exactly either, but the process won't give us
  what we need without our participation in it.
• If you don't have time, create a new CSAnot
  community supported agriculturecommunity
  supported advocatessupport someone to do this!

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The Real Tag Line
You're it!
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It is Going to Take US

• You're going to have a chance to contribute to
  this process in a few minutesafter we take a few
  questions
• And be sure to get one of the handouts and help
  us further this process
• Thank You!

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