Building Codes Assistance Project

On November 20, during the U.S. Green Building Council's Greenbuild International Conference at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick set two major goals for energy efficiency and renewable energy. The first aims to make all new malls and "big box" retail stores like Wal-Mart and Target energy efficient and powered in part by solar energy by 2010, and the second goal is for the state to offer a super-efficient building code as a local option for municipalities.

Massachusetts garnered a grant of half a million dollars to work with other states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions to develop and implement plans to upgrade, implement and enforce building energy codes that are a 30 percent improvement over ASHRAE 90.1-2004 and/or the 2006 IECC.

The 7th Edition of the Massachusetts State Building Code Chapters 13 and 61 have been updated to include the 2006 IECC with the 2007 Supplement and ASHRAE 90.1-2007 with state-specific amendments (including a long-standing requirement for air barriers).

The new edition will become effective on October 6, 2008. The residential code update will become fully effective immediately. For commercial buildings, there will be a 6-month interim period in which either the 6th or the 7th edition of the commercial code can be used.

On July 2, 2008, the state of Massachusetts updated its 7th Edition One- and Two-Family (low-rise residential) Energy code by adopting the 2006 IECC with state-specific front-end amendments but preserving the technical requirements. Governor Deval Patrick signed legislation requiring that energy efficiency standards for all new buildings are to be met via compliance with the 2006 IECC with the 2006/2007 Supplement and ASHRAE 90.1-2007.