Green Building Initiative

Earlier this week, Hudson County Assemblyman Ruben Ramos of Hoboken sponsored two green building bills as New Jersey’s fall legislative session opened up in Trenton.

The first, A1626, would require affordable housing to implement green design features, though the bill as proposed does not mandate any particular formal certification or include specifics on how the legislation would be enforced. The second, A2065, would provide low-interest loans available to developers who construct or renovate a building that qualifies as a “high-performance green building,” which is defined in the bill as “a building having at least 15,000 square feet in total floor area that is designed and constructed in a manner that achieves at least a [S]ilver rating according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System as adopted by the United States Green Building Council.”

Almost a year ago, USGBC announced that it was developing a new building standard in cooperation with ASHRAE and IESNA. Standard 189P for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings remained open for public comment through the end of last July; the standard was supposed to be complete by the close of 2007 but it’s unclear exactly where those efforts stand. Though modeled on it, 189P is not the same thing as LEED. It’s intended to contain a series of performance-related criteria- including targets for energy and water efficiency- that buildings must satisfy in order for municipalities to issue a certificate of occupancy for new buildings or major renovation projects.

The Chandler Airport Commerce Center in Chandler, Arizona is an office and warehouse building that just became the first in the Copper State to earn any level of Green Globes certification from the Portland, Oregon-based non-profit Green Building Initiative ("GBI"). Located just outside of Tempe, the Center features a modest 27,000 square feet of warehouse space and 3,000 square feet of office suite space; specific details on its actual rating level (i.e., 1, 2, 3, or 4 Green Globes, essentially the same scale as LEED Certified through Platinum) don't appear available. According to Michael O'Connor, senior VP of Wisconsin-based developer Irgens, "[t]he building is relatively small, and going for LEED certification didn't make sense financially." He estimated a cost of "$75,000 to $100,000 . . .

The Green Building Initiative announced last week that Kentucky and Illinois have become the tenth and eleventh states in the nation to incorporate the Green Globes green building rating system into local legislation. (gbNYC has written a number of posts discussing Green Globes and comparing it with LEED). Kentucky’s bill recommends that its Finance and Administration Cabinet follow either Green Globes or LEED, while Illinois requires any school construction project applying for a state grant to obtain certification under Green Globes, LEED, or the Illinois Capital Development Board’s Green Building Advisory Committee Standards.

Ward Hubbell, President of GBI, recognized Kentucky and Illinois “for encouraging sustainable design practices with their new policies.” Of particular import, he also commended the two jurisdictions “for providing multiple options in the marketplace, which helps drive continuous improvement and encourages more people to design and build green.”