Southern California Office Real Estate Blog

CALGREEN BUILDING CODE TRANSITIONS INTO EFFECT

March 9, 2010 on 12:08 am | In Government, Green, Solutions, Trends, Uncategorized, all |

CALGREEN BUILDING CODE TRANSITIONS INTO EFFECT

By Jodi Summers

We always find these to be statistics to think about - buildings account for 39 percent of the energy used in the United States, 71 percent of electricity use, and 39 percent of C02 emission.

Our new CALGREEN Code state building code – which went into effect August 1^st - aims to improve the odds. Adherence to the code is voluntary until 2010, then the provisions are expected to become mandatory.

“It is imperative to expedite the greening of California’s building standards,” Governor Schwarzenegger stated. “As such, I am directing the California Building Standards Commission to work with specified state agencies on the adoption of green building standards for residential, commercial, and public building construction for the 2010 code adoption process.”

State officials say that if all of the green-building measures were enacted, buildings would at least be comparable to the requirements of a silver rating under the LEED standards set by the USGBC.

A recent report by McKinsey & Company notes that the U.S. economy has the potential to reduce annual non-transportation energy consumption by roughly 23 percent by 2020, eliminating more than $1.2 trillion in waste.

By establishing the CALGREEN Code, the California Building Standards Commission

is setting minimum green-building standards that may, at the discretion of any local government entity, be applied. Local governments such as West Hollywood, Santa Monica and Los Angeles have already set up codes that exceed the CBSC standards.

The purpose of the code is to improve public health, safety and general welfare by enhancing the design and construction of buildings through the use of building concepts that have a positive environmental impact, and by encouraging sustainable construction practices in the following categories:

• Planning and design

• Energy efficiency

• Water efficiency and conservation

• Material conservation and resource efficiency

• Environmental air quality

The Governor notes that the CBSC and the other agencies are further developing the framework to include mandatory measures in the 2010 CALGREEN Code. Stakeholder workshops begin March 26, with technical review and public comment scheduled for later in the year. The 2010 version is planned to become effective on January 1, 2011.

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http://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=1052010

http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/electricpowernaturalgas/US_energy_efficiency/

http://www.documents.dgs.ca.gov/green/meetings/brochure090508.pdf

http://www.buildersbook.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=BBI2411A08&Category_Code=97b

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/04/sb_presentations/source/7.htm