WASHINGTON - Michael Sullivan, general president of the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association, presented a grant of $180,000 this week to Mike Owens, president of Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) for the Construction Taxonomy Project, initiating a partnership between the National Center for Energy Management and Building Technologies (NCEMBT) and CSI.

The collaboration between CSI and the NCEMBT will result in standards for terminology that will be commonly used throughout the entire lifecycle of the built environment in North America in project delivery, operations, and management.

The Construction Taxonomy Project will establish a standard lexicon of terms used in the construction industry with the ultimate goal being the creation of a consensus standard for American English construction terminology. Currently, no such definitive lexicon exists.