CALGREEN – > CALIFORNIA NOW HAS THE COUNTRY’S GREENEST BUILDING STANDARD

January 27, 2010 on 12:53 am | In Green Building, Green Cities, LEED, Trends, Uncategorized, Water, all |

By Jodi Summers

Bravo to us! California has adopted the greenest building standards in the United States…and the world.

The new code, called Calgreen, goes into effect next January 2011. It requires all builders to:

v Install plumbing that cuts indoor water use.

Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, said the new building code would require developers to slash water use in their buildings by 20%, using more efficient toilets, shower heads and faucets.

v Divert 50 percent of construction waste from landfills to recycling.

v Use low-pollutant paints, carpets and floorings

v Buildings will be given certificates of occupancy occupied only after strict energy standards were verified.


In addition, for non residential buildings:

v Install separate water meters for different uses.

v Mandates the inspection of energy systems by local officials to ensure that heaters, air conditioners and other mechanical equipment in nonresidential buildings are working efficiently.

v It allows local jurisdictions, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, to retain their stricter existing green building standards, or adopt more stringent versions of the state code if they choose.

“California should be proud… These are simple, cost-effective green practices. …” notes Tom Sheehy, acting secretary of the state Consumer Services Agency and chair of the California Building Standards Commission, which approved the standards. “This is (something) no other state in the country has done - integrating green construction practices into the very fabric of the construction code.”

While California’s largest metropolitan areas have adopted their own green building standards, these new regulations will be particularly useful for smaller jurisdictions that have been unable to develop their own green construction guidelines.

This is a positive alternative to LEED construction standards. Sites Sandra Boyle, an executive vice president of Glenborough, a developer, “The cost for owners to go through this rating system is astronomical — in a very challenging commercial real estate market.”

“You will have a whole bunch of cities that never would have included this in their building doing it, and doing it in a way that won’t kill the economy,” observes Matthew Hargrove, a vice president with the California Business Properties Association. “Outside the coastal areas it will be helpful - like in West Sacramento, where they looked into creating a green building code but balked because it’s cumbersome to develop and they didn’t have the resources.”

Buildings currently account for about one-quarter of the state’s total greenhouse gas emissions. These new standards are applauded as an important step in helping California meet its goal in reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020.

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  1. The Earth Advantage Institute reported that design professionals should watch for the following green trends in 2010: (1) homes connected to the smart grid, (2) energy labeling for homes and buildings; (3) BIM software advances, (4) financial community buy-in to green building; (5) “rightsizing” of homes; (6) eco-districts; (7) water conservation; (8) carbon calculations; (9) net zero buildings; and (10) sustainable building education.

    Comment by Earth Advantage Institute — February 5, 2010 #

  2. #1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.
    (Likely applies to half the world population)

    #2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak
    that it is mistaken for hunger.

    #3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as 3%.

    #4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs
    for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of
    Washington study.

    #5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

    #6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of
    water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain
    for up to 80% of sufferers.

    #7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term
    memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on
    the computer screen or on a printed page.

    #8.. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of
    colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast
    cancer by 79%., and one is 50% less likely to develop
    bladder cancer. Are you drinking the amount of water
    you should drink every day?

    Comment by rsumm90328 — March 2, 2010 #

  3. The Preservation Green Lab is partnering with the City of Seattle and the New Buildings Institute to pioneer a new energy code compliance framework (for both new and existing buildings) based on actual post-construction performance outcomes. With outcome-based codes, building owners will have the flexibility to pursue whatever retrofit strategies they deem appropriate for their individual buildings, but in return are required to achieve a pre-negotiated performance target on an ongoing basis.

    The ultimate goal of an outcome-based code framework is full accountability for energy performance of all buildings, with complete flexibility in how to achieve it. What works in Seattle will work in other places – and the
    goal is to replicate this innovative model code throughout the country.

    Comment by Patrice Frey — May 20, 2010 #

  4. According to the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), the country is all set to become the global leader by 2015 with over 1 billion sq ft of green building footprint.

    “Until 2007 January, there were only 40 green buildings registered by the IGBC, of which only four were certified. We now have 532 green buildings registered, of which 77 have been certified (Of these 532, around 350 are commercial buildings and the rest are residential). Mumbai is the forerunner, followed by Chennai and then Bengaluru” aver-red Dr Prem C. Jain, chairman, IGBC.

    Comment by Deccan Chronicle — May 21, 2010 #

  5. “Doubling Down on Green: Why Sustainability Endures in the Face of a Recession” indicates that 68 percent of developers own or manage at least some green properties (up from 60 percent last year), and five years from now 89 percent expect to (about the same as last year).

    Comment by Energy Priorities — June 7, 2010 #

  6. USGBC now has more than 19,000 members, and in March, the USGBC announced that the 5,000th project had been certified. This number does not include new homes that have been certified. However, before a building is certified, it must be registered with the USGBC. USGBC’s website indicates that close to 20,000 projects have been registered.

    Comment by USGBC — June 14, 2010 #

  7. What each conception of waste has in common is the notion of something cast off. Often these cast-offs wind up by the side of the road or in a landfill. Sometimes people find value in them–table scrapings that become a meal for man or beast; discarded bottles that are recycled into new ones; industrial waste that becomes a feedstock to an entirely different process. Most recently, U.S. castoffs are trending downward. Even in categories where more waste is actually generated, less is simply discarded in favor of some type of reclamation.(1) Not only did we avoid a “garbage crisis” in the 1980s, but also, in the late 1990s, there are significant reasons to believe that ever-increasing waste is not inevitable. For the forces of the 1980s have led to a contextual shift in how we view waste today. Seen from the new perspective offered by industrial ecology in the broader framework of sustainable development, far fewer materials need be considered waste.

    Comment by TrMarian R. Chertow — July 19, 2010 #

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