green buildings

Green Open House Tour: Green Retro-fit: Built in 1818 and renovated with a grant from the state, one home on the Green Open House Tour now features modern green building systems.

The NESEA (Northeast Sustainable Energy Association) is hosting an open house on Saturday, October 4, from 10 am to 4 pm. The organization has coordinated with home owners and facility managers to provide access to numerous green buildings. Visit the site to see if there is an open house in your area and drop in to ask questions and see the installations that make new and remodeled homes more energy efficient. Just click on the map search, enter your zip code, and click GO. You can also search for projects that involve a specific type of green feature, like a geothermal heat pump, grey-water collection, or LEED rating in the drop down menu at left. I’m going to visit a home built in 1818 in Andover, MA that exhibits grid-tied Photovoltaics, a geothermal heat pump, a tankless water heater, and an alternative fuel vehicle for daily use.

This post was submitted by ThinkDwell. Visit Our Blog.

Local governments now have a new, standardized framework to plan, track and document their environmental and sustainability work. The Star Community Index, a collaboration between the U.S. Green Building Council, the Center for American Progress and the ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, builds upon the highly successful methodology established by LEED.

The Index aims to deliver a standardized formula for gauging a community's sustainability. Like LEED, it will include tiered levels with classification based on actions achieved consistent with a given goal.

The Star Index aims to do the following things: 1) drive integrity and rigor in actions cities are doing to reduce climate impacts 2) increase accountability in data and actions 3) facilitate prioritized and informed decision making 4) create a roadmap for cities to track and achieve sustainability goals 5) offer globally recognized green standards for cities 6) enable peer-to-peer learning among communities and citizen engagement 7) engage the public in supporting and advancing their city as a Star community.

Gauging a community's sustainability is a laudable and important goal. Will Star become as popular as LEED as become? Only time will tell.

On July 17, 2008, California became the first state in the nation to incorporate green building standards into its building codes. The codes, developed by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), will be phased in over the next three years.

The standards address the following key issues:

• Energy Efficiency (to be phased in beginning July 2009): The HCD standards require compliance with the California Energy Commission’s Residential Energy Efficiency Standards, which will increase the stringency of existing statewide energy standards by 20 percent. The new standards will make new California homes approximately 50 percent more energy-efficient than homes built to national energy standards.

• Air Quality, Moisture Control & Resource Conservation (to be phased in beginning January 2011): There are 16 features in this category that will become mandatory at the same time as the new 2010 edition of the California Building Code takes effect. Among these features are requirements for low- or no-VOC (volatile organic compound) adhesives, paints and coatings; high-efficiency air conditioning filters to better filter out dust and particulates; and always-on exhaust fans to ensure better fresh air circulation in the home.

• Water Conservation (to be phased in beginning July 2011): The HCD standards require a 20 percent reduction in overall water use within all new homes . While this new water-conserving building code will allow a variety of compliance options, it is anticipated that compliance with this requirement will commonly be met via installation of new super-low flow toilets and showerheads.

Los Angeles and San Francisco have adopted even stricter rules, and the state regulations won't trump these higher standards (this had been a major sticking point in the legislation).

We applaud California for passing this law and hope that other states will follow California's lead.

According to a new book by the International Energy Agency, existing buildings are responsible for more than 40 percent of the world's total primary energy consumption and for 24 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The book, Promoting Energy Efficiency Investments: Case Studies in the Residential Sector, says that although improving energy efficiency in residential buildings is by far the most cost-effective way to increase energy security, reduce energy costs, and cut emissions, many efficiency technologies and practices remain untapped due to numerous market barriers.

These barriers include financing difficulties, a low priority given to energy issues, poor information, and a disparity of incentives available to investors and energy end-users, such as split incentives between landlords and tenants. The book reports that a new market for energy efficiency is needed to overcome these barriers. This new market will require increased private-sector involvement and strong political will, especially at the national level. The book examines experiences in the U.S., Japan, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and evaluates policies and measures for improving energy efficiency in existing residential buildings.

The book recommends public-private partnerships as the strongest way to attack problems. It also recommends multi-party packages to address multiple barriers simultaneously and a more systematic data collection to improve policy analysis and comparisons of countries' energy policies and measures.

Green leases are becoming more and more popular. Simply put, a “green” lease is a lease of space in a green building. Green buildings impact leases in three primary ways.

First, green buildings impact the construction and design of the space. A normal lease requires the landlord to construct the core and shell and the tenant to build or pay for improvements to the space. A green lease requires that the landlord and tenant work together in an integrated design process. In addition, the tenant may require the landlord to represent and warrant that the building achieves some level of LEED certification.

Second, green buildings impact a lease’s economic provisions. Constructing a green building might be more expensive than a normal building. However, the operating costs are usually less. The lease should address how those costs and benefits should be allocated.

Third, green buildings impact a lease’s provisions relating to operations and maintenance. Green building systems have detailed operating and maintenance requirements. A landlord may prepare an operations manual for the building and require the tenant to comply with it. Conversely, a tenant may want to impose an obligation on the landlord to operate and maintain the building in accordance with certain green standards. Both parties may agree to use environmental friendly cleaning materials. The landlord may condition approval of tenant alterations on compliance with certain green building rating criteria. These requirements should be reflected in the lease.

As green buildings become more prevalent, green leases will too. We encourage landlords and tenants to consult with an experienced attorney when entering into such a lease so that their expectations are accurately reflected in the final document.