Sustainable (Green) Building

Section 01350

Special Environmental Requirements Specification

Section 01350 contains specification language on environmental and public health considerations for building projects. This specification establishes goals and provides an overview of special environmental requirements. It covers guidelines for energy, materials, and water efficiency, indoor air quality (IAQ), nontoxic performance standards for cleaning and maintenance products, and sustainable site planning and landscaping considerations, among other measures. Some key elements of Section 01350 are procedures to ensure good indoor air quality to protect human health. This part of the specification, which includes product selection guidelines and emission-testing protocols to distinguish low-emitting materials, was recently revised and updated.

• Indoor Air Quality Part Revised
• State Construction Projects
• Low-Emitting Materials Criteria for Schools
• National Implementation of Section 01350
• Model Specifications Incorporating Section 01350
• Healthy Building Network Reviews Section 01350
• Building Material Emissions Study
• Background 

Indoor Air Quality Part Revised

The Department of Health Services expanded several sub-sections of the indoor air quality part of Section 01350 through the development of a Standard Practice. This document “supercedes previous versions of small-scale environmental chamber testing portion of California Specification 01350).” It includes updates to the sub-section on sample receiving and handling, an expansion of the section on laboratory methods and procedures, a new sub-section describing laboratory reporting requirements, and additional information on Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC) calculations in addition to Prop 65 chemicals. “No changes have been made to the pass/fail criteria.”

• Standard Practice For The Testing of Volatile Organic Emissions from Various Sources Using Small-Scale Environmental Chambers

State Construction Projects

Although, Section 01350 was originally developed in 2000 for the State's Modular Office Furniture Specification, it has since been modified and used in the Capital Area East End Complex (CAEEC) Block 225 State construction project. An article about the use of Section 01350 in the CAEEC project can be found in the December 2002 issue of the Construction Specifier.

• List of Products that Passed Section 01350
• Download East End Specification Section 01350 (Adobe PDF*, 95 KB)

Section 01350 has been incorporated into the Department of General Services (DGS) standard agreement for engineering and architectural services. That means that the State of California’s investments of $2 billion dollars annually to operate nearly 200 million square feet and lease 21 million square feet of building space will incorporate these special environmental requirements.

Low-Emitting Materials Criteria for Schools: Section 01350

The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) Criteria includes a credit for low-emitting materials. Schools projects that specify and install products that meet Section 01350 can claim up to 4 points towards CHPS certification. A Low-Emitting materials Table of products that meet the indoor air quality test protocols in Section 01350 is now available on the CHPS website.

• CHPS Low-Emitting Materials Table

CHPS Best Practices Manual: Material Specifications. Using the links below, you may download the latest version of the CHPS Section 01350 specification.

• CHPS Section 01350 (Word, 349 KB)
• Notes for Section 01350 (Word, 60 KB)

National Implementation of Section 01350

Since CHPS offers points to schools projects that use low-emitting materials that meet Section 01350, several high performance schools have adopted Section 01350 for inclusion in their projects. In fact, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has adopted CHPS district-wide and is interested in making sure all of their schools obtain points for low-emitting materials. On a national level, several states have adopted the CHPS best practices.

The DHS Standard Practice is under for consideration by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D-22 Committee as a Standard.

Model Specifications Incorporating Section 01350

• Reference Specifications for Energy and Resource Efficiency

Healthy Building Network Reviews Section 01350

• Review of the California 1350 Specification and Indoor Air Quality (Adobe PDF, 141 KB)

Background

California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) staff worked with the California Department of Health Services (DHS), California Air Resources Board, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Hal Levin of Building Ecology Research Group, and Anthony Bernheim, FAIA, principal in charge of green design at Simon Martin-Vegue Winkelstein Moris to develop Section 01350.

Last updated: October 12, 2007