The ASHRAE GreenGuide: One Means of Establishing a Link between Sustainable Design Practitioners

The paper discusses the newly revised ASHRAE GreenGuide, particularly as it relates to thetopic of indoor environmental quality. The updated Guide includes a new chapter on LEEDGuidance for Mechanical Engineers and a new chapter on building systems Impact on theLocal Environment- both indoor and outdoor. This chapter is intended to describe how HVACsystems interact with the building indoor and outdoor environment, and includes (amongothers) sections dealing with indoor environmental quality, cooling tower systems andchemical water treatment, acoustics, and the science of designing healthy buildings. One ofthe more useful concepts in the Guide is the inclusion of Green Tips, which are sidebarsummaries of specific technologies that can be used to design a high-performance (green)building. Three building specific Green Tips are discussed, with particular emphasis ontopical areas related to indoor air quality concerns.