Page 50 - Occupational Health & Safety, May 2017

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
mission is to establish and implement building rating systems that describe the performance of buildings during earth- quakes and other natural hazard events, to educate the general public to under- stand these risks, and thereby improve societal resiliency.
The creation of the U.S. Resiliency Council comes at a time when the federal government has recognized the need for long-term resiliency planning of its infra- structure, critical facilities, and communi- ties. The steadily increasing economic and social losses in U.S. disasters and the aware- ness of the potential effects of catastrophic events on an increasingly dense and unpre- pared population are a clear call for more consistently applied assessment techniques to measure building resiliency.
The USRC is in a unique position to transform the way earthquake perfor- mance of new and existing buildings is per- ceived by clients and the public. It offers a technically defensible and replicable meth- odology for implementing a consistent and measurable rating system. The USRC is modeled after the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC®). Like the USGBC, the USRC issues ratings, certifies practitioners, and technically reviews ratings shared with the public so that USRC ratings are credible and consistent. Ratings will benefit build- ing owners, lenders, tenants, and govern- ment jurisdictions by increasing the value of well-designed properties as well as retro- fitted existing buildings. Policy makers will use USRC ratings to compare and prioritize relative risks and to form a basis for devel- oping long-term resilience policy.
The USRC Rating System consists of three dimensions (safety, repair cost, and time to regain basic function):
■ The Safety rating dimension ad- dresses thresholds for the building in terms of the potential for people in the building to
get out after an earthquake event and avoid bodily injuries or loss of life.
■ The Repair Cost rating dimension is an estimate of the cost to repair the building after the earthquake event. Re- pair cost is defined as a percentage of the building’s overall replacement cost prior to the earthquake.
■ The Time to Regain Basic Func- tion rating represents an estimate of the minimum timeframe to carry out suffi- cient repairs and to remove major safety hazards and obstacles to regain occupan- cy and use of the building, but not neces- sarily restore it to its full intended func- tions and operations as it existed prior to the earthquake.
Within each dimension, definitions are keyed to five levels of performance. Levels of performance are communicated using star symbols, with more stars equating to higher (or better) performance. The cur- rent rating dimensions and performance level definitions are shown on the USRC web site. The USRC Rating System has a color overlay of platinum, gold, silver, and bronze ratings. A building designed to cur- rent codes will as a minimum have a bronze rating and in all likelihood will be silver rat- ed, but not a gold or platinum rating.
The USRC Rating System will:
■ Communicate levels of performance to broad-based, non-technical audiences
■ Address new and existing buildings in a consistent context
■ Correct popular misconceptions about expected building performance
■ Provide multiple measures of per- formance to suit different decision-making needs
■ Provide a context for public policy decisions and market forces to encourage and reward better-performing designs
The rating system is usable by all oc- cupants, buyers, sellers, and tenants of a
building. The greatest value of a system is one that meshes with economic decisions. Thus, there are a number of potential ap- plications, with an important one being a building rating that is disclosed as part of a real estate sales transaction. In the con- text of a sales transaction, we envision that market pressures would encourage buyers and/or sellers to obtain a rating, making it part of pre-purchase due diligence. A re- lated situation that could initiate a rating to be obtained is a lease turnover. A range of other potential uses includes:
■ New construction as part of permit process
■ Voluntarily by developers if market demand is perceived
■ Required as part of the permit process
■ Required by lenders and insurance companies
■ Public buildings
■ Occupants’ right to know
■ Existing buildings in place of a ret-
rofit mandate
■ Provides information for tenants
and leases to make more rational decisions; they may be happy to pay a lower rent for a higher-risk building.
The USRC building rating system that is designed to speak to the population as a whole, in terms that are understandable and meaningful in their day-to-day deci- sion-making, has the potential to change the game in risk communication and el- evate seismic performance considerations into everyday conversations involved in building, buying, or leasing a building.
Ron Mayes is the Board Chair and Evan Reis is the Executive Director of U.S. Re- siliency Council. Alan Klembczyk is Vice President, Sales & Engineering, for Taylor Devices, Inc. (www.taylordevices.com) of North Tonawanda, N.Y.
46 Occupational Health & Safety | MAY 2017
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