An insightful letter to the editor that suggests many potential green construction law issues appears in the February 2008 issue of The Construction Specifier magazine. Written by Anne Whitacre of Gehry Partners’ Los Angeles office, A Different Perspective on Green draws attention to the LEED mandates that continue to be enacted in the author’s hometown of Seattle. In the letter, Whitacre raises her concerns about both local green building incentives and public mandates; her comments ring particularly salient in light of the recent Managing Risk in Sustainable Building conference at DePaul’s Real Estate Center in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, as well as freshly proposed Seattle-based legislation that would expand a green building mandate at the county level.
February 19th, 2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | ContinuedLEED Creep
San Francisco’s Proposed Green Building Legislation: Progressive or Plain LEED Creep?
At a press conference last week that was held at Tishman Speyer’s LEED Silver hopeful 555 Mission Street, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proposed municipal LEED legislation that, if enacted, would be among the most rigorous in the country applying to private construction. Mayor Newsom has vowed to fast-track his signature on the legislation should [...]
December 20th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 1 comment | Continued
Pittsburgh Approves Green Density Bonuses, Will Consider LEED Mandate for Public and TIF Projects
On Monday, Pittsburgh’s City Council approved a new green building incentive, and entertained a second which it will vote on sometime next year. The first, and less controversial bill, will allow LEED-certified buildings to rise 20 percent higher and include 20 percent more floor area than other buildings in their zoning district. For example, the [...]
November 29th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Surety Industry Raises Red Flags Over D.C. Green Building Act
Concerns over LEED creep (the application of LEED mandates to private projects) include the potential for awkwardly- or hastily-drafted legislation to change the risk structure associated with a given green construction project for various project stakeholders. For example, back in early August, the Surety and Fidelity Association of America (“SFAA”) and the National Association of [...]
October 11th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 1 comment | Continued
Green Building Legislative Compromises Could Help Ease Concerns over LEED Creep
Nassau County on Long Island is on the verge of requiring project teams to adhere to LEED when constructing new county buildings or renovating existing county buildings. However, the proposed legislation will not require the county to apply for any level of LEED certification from USGBC.
According to New York Newsday, Nassau Commissioner of Public Works [...]
Is LEED Legislation- Whether Public or Private- Undemocratic?
In an article written earlier this week, Dan Walters, a columnist at the Sacramento Bee, articulated his concerns over a LEED-driven green public building regulatory scheme by calling such legislation “part of a broader legislative tendency to avoid tough policy decisions by shifting them to unaccountable outside organizations.” Walters was writing with respect to California’s [...]
August 8th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Second Long Island County on Verge of Mandating LEED for Public Projects
It appears that Nassau County on Long Island is about to mandate LEED for public projects greater than 5,000 square feet or budgeted at $1 million or more. County Executive Thomas Suozzi announced at a press conference on Monday in Mineola that his proposal (also sponsored by legislators from Merrick and Oceanside) was approved by [...]
July 27th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
LEED Creep: Gaia Napa Valley Hotel Receives Gold Rating from USGBC
Back in December, I wrote about LEED creep in the context of the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel, which at the time, and after opening in November, was waiting on its LEED certification from USGBC in order to obtain a $1 million rebate for hotel occupancy tax revenues from the American Canyon, California City Council. The [...]
July 12th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Private Green Building Mandate Debate Surfaces in Palo Alto
There’s a great article in the latest issue of Building Design + Construction that provides some insight into the carrot versus stick debate with respect to municipal green building mandates. Palo Alto’s City Council is currently considering how, and if, it should institute green building requirements for private projects. (Currently, Palo Alto requires public projects [...]
April 12th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Op Ed: The Greening of Buildings
I had the opportunity to write about Babylon’s green building legislation, which was recently incorporated into the Long Island town’s building code, as part of an editorial in today’s (Sunday) edition of New York Newsday. The piece focuses largely on LEED creep- which I’ve discussed here in prior posts- and touches on some issues that [...]
March 5th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 2 comments | Continued
Catching Up on Some LEED News from USGBC
USGBC announced last week that it is now accepting public comments on both the second draft of the LEED for Schools rating system as well as a pending proposal that all LEED projects seeking certification under LEED-NC, LEED-EB, LEED-CI, or LEED-CS obtain a minimum of two points within the Optimize Energy Performance credit. (This latter [...]
February 20th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Back to Boston: Revisting Beantown’s Green Building Legislation
I want to clarify a recent post I wrote about Boston’s green building legislation, which now applies to public and private development of more than 50,000 square feet, that was erroneous (in part from a confusing article along with some poor research on the part of yours truly- my apologies).
Titled “Green Buildings,” Article 37 was [...]
“Making Green Building a Mainstream Practice” Conference Offers Thoughts from Developers on LEED
Last Thursday, Bank of America, The Rockefeller Foundation, and The Next American City magazine sponsored an invitation-only conference at the Museum of Natural History as part of the Urban Innovation Symposium Series. Called “From the Ground Up: Making Green Building a Mainstream Practice,” a variety of both market-rate and affordable housing developers, including Douglas [...]
February 8th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 2 comments | Continued
Green Building Consultant Jerry Yudelson Peers Into 2007 Green Building Crystal Ball
Former USGBC board member, current chairman of Greenbuild, and author of Marketing Green Buildings and Developing Green, Jerry Yudelson, offers some 2007 green building predictions in the latest edition of Consulting-Specifying Engineer. (Image used with permission of Cristalier.com).
First, Yudelson believes that by the end of 2007, the cumulative number of LEED certifications will exceed [...]
Napa Valley Hotel Demonstrates Dangers to Developers Posed by LEED Creep
In the wake of the D.C. Council passing significant LEED legislation last week, there’s been substantial commentary about how positive the bill is for green building at large. While I agree that the legislation is certainly a step in the right direction, a recent post I wrote about the D.C. mandate describes what the BD+C [...]
December 19th, 2006 | Stephen Del Percio | 5 comments | Continued