Master Builders of Iowa

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has made available three guides and related materials on the handling and disposal of waste that may contain polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), asbestos or mercury (specifically fluorescent lamps).

The first two guides focus on managing the debris caused by spills or natural disasters, specifically during the emergency response and recovery efforts.  The first guide, “Planning for Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB)-Containing Disaster Debris,” includes the regulations that apply to damaged PCB-containing equipment (such as transformers and capacitors) and offers approaches to assess, clean up, and dispose of materials contaminated with PCBs that have been spilled or otherwise been released.  This guide supplements a prior EPA Guide “Planning for Natural Disaster Debris Guidance.”  The second guide, “Guidelines for Catastrophic Emergency Situations Involving Asbestos,” provides need-to-know information for emergency responders and addresses the cleanup and disposal of debris that may be contaminated with asbestos as well as the demolition and renovation of buildings during recovery efforts.  This version of the guide replaces the 1992 version of the same title.

AGC environmental victories include “wins” on issues such as: National Air Standards, EPA’s ‘Mud Rule,’ Fly Ash in Construction, Lead Paint ‘Clearance’ Testing, Off-road Diesel Emissions Rules and Funding for Diesel Retrofit. These efforts save member firms billions of dollars every year.
 
AGC works year-round to protect construction jobs and the environment, and has a long history of working closely with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to improve environmental performance in a way that doesn’t undermine economic growth.

AGC of America and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) have just released an executive summary of the industry summit on sustainability and risk the organizations jointly held earlier this year.  Initiated from a discussion by the AIA-AGC Joint Committee, the summit brought together representatives from various industry stakeholder groups to explore the rapidly shifting legal landscape in the building industry.  Key themes for the day were collaboration, education, practice transformation, accountability and metrics.  The executive summary is available here.

As previously reported, the April 25, 2011 summit was organized around presentations to provide an overview of sustainable building trends, green building costs and litigation; as well as panel discussions to ascertain the major questions and concerns of professional liability insurers and sureties and the future impacts of green codes, standards and rating systems on the building industries.  A list of presenters and panel participants can be found in the executive summary.

On Dec. 7, 2011, the U.S. House passed H.R. 10, the “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act”, by a margin of 241 to 184.  The AGC-supported bill would require Congress to scrutinize major rules and affirmatively approve any new major rule before it could be imposed on employers. The REINS Act is limited to new “major rules” (i.e., rules having an impact on the economy of $100 million or more), therefore impacting only a small fraction of all rules promulgated each year (about 26 rules in the pipeline meet that threshold. They include new regulations on Crystalline Silica, Hours of Service and Hazardous Communications), while covering those with the most significant impact on the economy.

AGC of America and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) have just released an executive summary of the industry summit on sustainability and risk the organizations jointly held earlier this year.  Initiated from a discussion by the AIA-AGC Joint Committee, the summit brought together representatives from various industry stakeholder groups to explore the rapidly shifting legal landscape in the building industry.  Key themes for the day were collaboration, education, practice transformation, accountability and metrics.  The executive summary is available here.

As previously reported, the April 25, 2011 summit was organized around presentations to provide an overview of sustainable building trends, green building costs and litigation; as well as panel discussions to ascertain the major questions and concerns of professional liability insurers and sureties and the future impacts of green codes, standards and rating systems on the building industries.  A list of presenters and panel participants can be found in the executive summary.