Southern California Green Real Estate Blog

20% OF CITIES HAVE PASSED GREEN POLICIES

February 10, 2010 on 12:20 am | In Green Building, Green Cities, Solutions, Trends, U.S. Government, Uncategorized, all |

20% OF CITIES HAVE PASSED GREEN POLICIES

Edited by Jodi Summers

Here’s a note of real estate optimism in dismal economic times - according to a recent survey by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), more than one in five U.S. cities with populations greater than 50,000 report having a policy to promote green buildings.

The AIA report, titled Green Building Policy in a Changing Economic Environment, is an inventory of legislation intended to help policymakers advance a more sustainable legislative agenda for growth and development.

The report contains detailed case studies of the green building programs in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, Nashville, and Grand Rapids, Mich.

“It is encouraging that cities are recognizing the economic benefits of energy-efficient buildings, and equally encouraging that the number of programs across the country are increasing despite such difficult economic conditions,” said AIA Executive Vice President / CEO, Christine McEntee. “Our ultimate goal is to achieve carbon neutrality in buildings by 2030 and that all design projects will be sustainable as a matter of course.”

Highlights from the report:

* 138 cities have green building programs, compared with 92 cities in 2007 – an increase of 50 percent

* 24 of the 25 most populated metropolitan regions in the United States are built around cities with a green building policy

* The Western region has the most green building programs with 56 cities in just six states

* The Mountain region is second in the percentage of cities with green building programs, with 24 percent of residents living in those cities

* The Eastern region has seen a 75 percent rise in green building programs since 2007

* The central region has 21 cities with green building programs

The report goes on to make recommendations McEntee added, “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is helping to move sustainability efforts forward, with programs such as the Energy Efficient and Conservation Block Grant that are providing an unprecedented opportunity for the advancement of green building efforts nationwide. The inclusion of strong green building provisions in energy and climate legislation before Congress shows that our message about the importance of sustainable design is getting through.”

There are also a series of recommendations for steps a municipality could take to green their city. The AIA initially conducted this survey in 2007 for a Local Leaders in Sustainability report that has just been updated. It accounts for more than 53 million people.

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http://www.aia.org/walkthewalk

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http://www.aia.org/press/AIAB081674

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http://www.archicentral.com/wp-content/images/lakeside.jpg