"California Leads the Nation with First Green Building Code..."

"The rightward wing of the 2010 mid-term elections does not bode well for many environmental initiatives across the country, but California has proven yet again that's it's different. There, voters soundly rejected a ballot initiative that would have rolled back the state's 2006 law combating climate change, and elected a liberal governor with a strong environmental agenda.
Those two electoral choices protected the January 2011 roll-out of California's first-in-the-nation green building code, known simply as "CALGreen." The arrival of CALGreen could prove to be a watershed event in green building adoption, as it sets a precedent that makes it easier for other states and local governments to adopt green codes.
Convieniently, the International Green Construction Code (IGCC), with ASHRAE Standard 189.1 providing additional options for governments to adopt, has just been released. These model green codes are partly based on CALGreen, making the transition even easier.
The arrival of green building codes comes none too soon for a situation in which LEED has been stretched beyond its originally intended use by state and local governments to regulate private senior projects. LEED is written as a voluntary standard- it's one thing for a city or agency to adopt it as a benchmark for public buildings, but imposing it on developers and owners is fraught with problems.
The U.S. Green Building Councial didn't actively encourage the use of LEED as a mandate but it didn't discourage it, either. It has, however, actively supported the creation of the model green codes as they establish a higher baseline from which LEED can evolve to encourage more aggressive green performance. That's exactly what USGBC is proposing in the public comment draft os the next generation of LEED- known for now, as "Next LEED." While LEED 2009 introduced many structural changes to the rating system, the credits themselves chane very little. Next LEED includes sweeping proposals for changes and a library of pilot credits that go even further.
While CALGreen doesn't go as far as many environmentalists would like, it does offer two optional tiers beyond the code minimum that cities and countries can adopt. California, if not the rest of the country, is ready for LEED to raise the bar."



-Thanks to GreenSourceMag.com for posting!


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