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10 August 2026: International standard for cost coding has been revised

“Architectural Landscape with a Canal” 1783 / Hubert Robert

The construction industry is one of the largest employers in any community.  Many labor unions in the United States support construction of education facilities.  The so-called “multiplier effect” cited by economists means that when you add one person working in the construction industry you create two additional jobs in other sectors.  With an annual construction spend of $75-10 billion, the education industry contributions mightily to the economy of host communities.   Any spend at that rate — the largest non-residential building construction in the United States — presents opportunity higher effectiveness and better profitability for all sides involved in a construction project just by doing a few simple things well:

• Provide general terminology; especially important when equipment (fenestration, environmental air systems, elevators, generators) originate from offshore manufacturers
  Organization of information in the processes of design, manufacture and construction
• Provide geometric requirements for buildings, building elements and components including modular coordination and its basic principles, general rules for joints, tolerances and fits, performance and test standards for sealants;
• Provide general rules for other performance requirements, including functional and user requirements related to service life, sustainability, accessibility and usability;
  Procurement processes, methods and procedures.

A paradigm shift is is well underway in the use of building information. Improved capital efficiency can be achieved with better data handling and information flows between project actors; falling into the wheelhouse of ISO TC 59; described in the links below:

STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLAN ISO/TC 59

CLICK ON IMAGE | Norway is the Global Secretariat | ASTM International is ANSI’s US Technical Advisory Group Administrator

While parts of the scopes of various subcommittees may already be familiar to construction professionals — Building Information Modeling (BIM), for example — the bulk of the work product remains fairly high-level.  We will keep an eye on it.

You may do so on your own by communicating directly with ANSI’s ISO Team and/or either of ANSI’s US Technical Advisory Group Administrators:

For TC/59/SC 8 (Sealants)

ASTM International
David Lee / 2128 W Evergreen Ave / West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959 / Phone: (610) 832-9585 / Email: dlee@astm.org

For TC/59/SC 13 (BIM)

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc.
Brian Cox / Training & Safety Office / 30 Hart Street Room 301 / Atlanta, GA 30329 / Phone: (404) 636-8400 / Email: bcox@ashrae.org

Kennedy School Construction / Harvard University

Because this topic cuts across all building industry disciplines we maintain this committee’s titles on standing agendas of several colloquia;  Construction Spend, E Pluribus Unum, Model Building Code and Global teleconferences.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [15-211]

Category: Management

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Christine Fischer, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben

LEARN MORE:

US National CAD Standard (v6)