[Scpg] Mandatory Green Buildings by Jan 2011/ Green Technology News CALGreen /California Green Building Standards Code

Wed Jul 21 06:07:46 PDT 2010

http://www.green-technology.org/green_technology_magazine/calgree.htm

In January 2011, a new era of building will begin in California. 
CALGreen, the nation's first state-wide green building code, will 
become mandatory. Architects, developers, plan checkers, inspectors, 
building officials and others involved in designing and approving new 
construction will be expected to adhere to new mandatory guidelines 
on issues ranging from water efficiency and conservation to indoor 
air quality.

In cooperation with the California Building Standards Commission and 
the California Department of Housing and Community Development, Green 
Technology is developing a series of training workshops to help raise 
awareness of the changes that CALGreen will bring and to help 
building officials and the design community prepare for 
implementation.
For the last year, Green Technology has offered sessions on CALGreen 
at its events, and at the 2010 Green California Summit the Building 
Standards Commission also hosted an information center on the Expo 
floor, with experts available to answer code questions. The strong 
response to a pre-Summit workshop focused on CALGreen was evidence of 
increased awareness of the code and the beginnings of serious efforts 
to take stock of necessary operational changes.

"Our conversations with building officials suggest that at present, 
awareness of the code varies greatly from jurisdiction to 
jurisdiction," says Green Technology editor in chief Carl Smith. "It 
is also apparent that we're entering into new territory in many ways, 
from what will be asked of building inspectors to the documentation 
necessary to show that paints, flooring or adhesives meet the new air 
quality standards."

The first round of workshops, beginning with a May 20 event 
http://www.green-technology.org/calgrin Pasadena, California, will be 
half-day regional events that offer basic orientation to the code and 
an overview of the new provisions. These will be followed later in 
the year by a second round of events offering more in-depth training.

"California is the first state in the nation to make green building 
mandatory," said Smith. "It's hard to overstate how significant it is 
that we are entering an era of healthy, efficient buildings. We 
consider this one of the most far-reaching policies the state has 
enacted, and hope to work with the Building Standards Commission to 
develop training events and materials that help this pioneering 
effort succeed."

"The mandatory provisions of CALGreen go into effect in January and 
anyone involved in designing and/or building new commercial or 
residential structures in California needs to know about the new 
requirements," said Dave Walls, executive director of the California 
Building Standards Commission. "We are pleased to be working with 
Green Technology in their implementation of CALGreen educational 
programs that will reach stakeholders throughout the state."

For updates on the CALGreen initiative, visit www.green-technology.org/CALGreen
To read Green Technology's interview with Dave Walls, executive 
director of the California Building Standards Commission, click here.
By Racquel Palmese
He's been called a maverick, a game changer and sometimes just plain 
crazy for trying to rewrite the California Building Standards Code to 
greatly increase water and energy efficiency standards, to lower the 
use of volatile organic compounds (VOC's) in building materials, and 
to increase the percentages of construction waste that must be 
diverted from landfills. But under a directive from the Governor's 
office, Dave Walls, executive director of the California Building 
Standards Commission (CBSC), along with a collaborative team of state 
agency and industry stakeholders, did just that. The new green 
building code, now known by its acronym, CALGreen, has officially 
been adopted.
It is the first-in-the-nation mandatory green building standards 
code. Voluntary for the time being, it will become mandatory on 
January 1, 2011. Once a building passes the inspection process, the 
property can then be labeled as CALGreen compliant.
"This is something no other state in the country has done - 
integrating green construction practices into the very fabric of the 
construction code," said Tom Sheehy, Acting Secretary of the 
California State and Consumer Services Agency and Chair of the 
Building Standards Commission. "CALGreen will essentially 
revolutionize the way we build structures. By implementing a 
sensible, cost-effective foundation of green practices, our state 
will usher in a new era of greener communities."
Among the new requirements under CALGreen, every new building in 
California will have to reduce water consumption by 20 percent, 
divert 50 percent of construction waste from landfills and install 
low VOC materials. Separate indoor and outdoor water meters for 
nonresidential buildings and moisture-sensing irrigation systems for 
large landscape projects will be required. There will be mandatory 
inspections of energy systems, such as furnaces and air conditioners 
for nonresidential buildings over 10,000 square feet. According to 
the California Air Resources Board, the mandatory provisions will 
reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3,000,000 metric tons by 2020.
The unanimous adoption of CALGreen by the CBSC was announced on 
January 12. However, leading up to the commission session there was a 
powerful pushback effort from environmental and green building 
groups. The USGBC, Sierra Club and the National Resources Defense 
Council tried to derail it, saying the verification system would be 
confusing. Hundreds of architects, engineers and builders sent 
messages to the governor opposing the CALGreen label.
In an interview with Green Technology, Walls addresses these 
concerns, gives the background of the path to adoption for this 
groundbreaking work and discusses how it will be implemented.

California has taken leadership in green building for years under 
Governor Schwarzenegger. How does the new green building code hook up 
to the Governor's green prerogatives?
The governor has been taking the lead over the years by signing 
legislation such as AB32 [California's Global Warming Act] relating 
to greenhouse gas emissions. A big part of that, of course, is a 
focus on buildings and reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. He 
further directed us to develop and adopt a green building code that 
would assist in the effort to affect overall climate change. It 
really fits right in with his whole policy and beliefs given the 
environmental issues facing our state, our nation, and the world. In 
2004 there was also the Governor's executive order S-20 04, which 
calls for the greening of all state government buildings. That kind 
of kicked off everything that is happening now.
Would you give an overview of the California Green Building Standards Code?
The green building code was specifically designed to reduce the 
impact of all buildings in the state on the environment. To do that, 
we had to establish a minimum mandatory set of standards that would 
apply to all buildings - schools, hospitals, residential occupancies, 
as well as commercial facilities. The ultimate goal is to provide a 
uniform and consistent code that can be used in coordination with all 
our other building codes. Our effort was focused on not only helping 
local building officials and governments, but the building industry 
as well, to give them something uniform and consistent and a 
direction they can head in.

What is the meaning of the term "CALGreen"?
CALGreen is the abbreviation for the California Green Building 
Standards Code, short for California Green Code. It's what we started 
calling it, and it stuck.

What are some highlights of the new code?
Commissioning stands out as one of the key components that is not in 
any other part of our building codes. Construction waste diversion - 
that's really not part of our other building codes either. Those are 
good examples. There are reductions in volatile organic compounds 
[VOCs] content in materials that are used in the building, also not 
part of our other building codes.
Our existing codes that deal with water reduction in toilets and 
water fixtures, but in this code we have combined and ratcheted them 
down so that the minimum mandatory requirement will be a 20 percent 
reduction in indoor potable water use and 50 percent in landscape 
irrigation. Those are just a few of the key elements.

This applies to new buildings and also refurbished buildings?
Our goal now is to focus on new buildings, so it would not apply to 
existing buildings at this time. Our next step will be to include 
existing buildings in the green code.

Does the green code apply to all residential, government and 
commercial buildings in California?
All buildings regulated by state code. Federal buildings are exempt; 
buildings built on Indian land, or reservations, are exempt. So there 
are some exceptions. But yes, ninety-nine point nine percent of the 
buildings built in the state are regulated by these codes.

You have been personally dedicated to developing and implementing 
CALGreen. In fact, there were those who said you could never get it 
done, especially with all the challenges facing California now. How 
did it all come about?
It really came from the administration. They came to us. We update 
all of our building codes triennially, every three years. Right after 
we completed it three years ago in January, the administration said 
okay, now what can you do?  Our building codes were kind of behind 
the national standards, and once they were updated, immediately the 
administration came to us and said, "The governor believes in 
greening the environment. What can you do with your codes to move 
towards that?"  So we looked around and tried to figure out what we 
could do and began building from there.
What we couldn't find was another green code out there, which really 
surprised me. I'm thinking we're behind the eight ball and we're 
going to have to play catch-up, but it wasn't that way. There were a 
lot of guidelines out there such as LEED, Green Globes, Build It 
Green, Global Green. I think USGBC cites about seventy different 
guidelines in the United States alone.
Part of the Governor's direction was to not reinvent the wheel. He 
told us to take a look at these programs, glean from them what you 
can, and then create a code. That's really what we did. We believe 
that's the direction we need to go as a state, as a country, and even 
as a world. We need to really make an
impact on the environment.
What do you say to people who feel there is doubt about manmade 
climate change and that there are so many other things to worry about 
right now, such as getting the state's economy back on track?
I know there's a lot of pushback from individuals that don't believe 
in climate change, but my argument to that is you can't say that all 
the things that are in this code aren't good. How can you say 
conserving water is not a good thing?  Conserving wood, steel, all 
the resources that are out there - how can you say that's not a good 
thing?  Conserving energy, making buildings more energy efficient, 
those are all positive moves regardless of the politics of climate 
change. I'm saying for those who don't believe in it, this is still 
all positive, and that's how I'm able to keep pushing this through.

People might also say that it's not good timing, we can't afford this 
right now. What do you say to that? 
For all of the mandatory measures we placed in our code, we did a 
cost benefit study. So everything shows that you're getting a 
significant benefit. If it's indoor air quality improved by reducing 
volatile organic compounds, for example, you're going to get a health 
benefit. Studies have shown that when there's better air in an office 
building for example, you're going to have less sick time and more 
productivity. That goes for commercial buildings and for schools as 
well.
The other thing is when you save water and energy, you actually can 
see that savings in your bill. Ultimately you get a payback on many 
of these things. We tried to look very carefully and work with 
industry on identifying those very concerns. We didn't make it 
mandatory to install solar panels, for example, because there is a 
high upfront cost to that. Everything you see in the green code has 
had a cost benefit ratio developed for it.

There's voluntary compliance right now. How are people are receiving it? 
We've had a lot of positive feedback. In fact there are some cities, 
such as the city of Irvine and the city of Calabasas that have 
already adopted it as mandatory. And there's also an international 
green construction code under development. I'm on the committee that 
is developing that code, and they are using the California code as a 
key resource because we are the only green building code out there 
right now.

The code is voluntary until 2011, when it becomes mandatory. How will 
this work?
The way it works is once the Building Standards Commission has 
actually adopted  the code, which it just has, we then have to 
formalize and publish it. This is part of our triennial update of the 
California Building Standards Code, so we have to publish the 
building, mechanical, plumbing, all the other codes at the same time. 
Working with our publishers, they tell us it will take until June or 
July. By state law, it only becomes effective 180 days after 
publication. The proposed effective date is January 1, 2011.

What happens when it shifts into mandatory compliance?
I don't think you could ever accomplish any of this without getting 
some pushback. There's always someone who's not going to be happy. We 
have engaged environmental groups, labor and  industry - architects 
and engineers also. We've tried to get them involved and to help them 
understand the code, and to see what kind of impact it might have.
Is there somebody who's not paying attention and a year from now will 
be saying, "Hey, what happened? What's going on?" I think there will 
be. But for the most part, our role is to get the information out, 
like we did at the Green California Schools Summit, like we will be 
doing at the Green California Summit in March in Sacramento. We're 
trying to get the word out as soon as possible as to what's coming 
and to help all stakeholders get prepared for it. Part of that 180 
days I'm talking about is to provide manufacturers and builders a 
chance to gear up and get ready for all the code changes, not just 
the green code.

Almost as soon as the adoption of CALGreen was announced, there was 
significant pushback from some environmental groups. Among the 
concerns voiced were that the code's implementation is confusing and 
that it could lower standards already voluntarily in place through 
certification programs such as the USGBC's LEED system. How would you 
respond? 
Our proposals were supported by two organizations that have programs 
similar to the USGBC's, California Green Builder and Green Building 
Initiative/Global Green. However, there were several organizations 
that expressed concerns that we did not agree with. It's worth noting 
that we did have a lot of support for our positions. For example, 
they stated that the code does not have a verification system, but in 
fact the code will be subjected to the long-standing, successful 
enforcement infrastructure that the state has established to enforce 
its health, safety, fire, energy, and structural building codes. The 
existing enforcement practices will make verification of the Green 
Code for local building inspectors a simple transition.
On the inferiority issue, the state has not worked on a comparison, 
and these organizations did not provide information to substantiate 
their claims. However, the building industry did state that the 
residential provisions are at least equal to existing programs. 
Lastly, many stakeholders have stated that the code will provide 
clarity to the marketplace and not confusion.
If I'm a small business, a building contractor, for example, how do I 
get trained on complying with the green building code?
We're sending out a newsletter pretty quick, and we'll have it on our 
website also. We're getting out to organizations that may already 
have training facilities and asking how we can work with them to get 
the word out, to get their members and interested parties trained on 
building codes issues. We've contacted U.C. Davis, and we're working 
with community colleges. We're trying to reach out as much as we can 
over this next year. Our focus up until now has been to get the code 
adopted, and that's taken a lot of our concentration and time. Now we 
will be able to shift that focus towards getting the education and 
training out there.

Is the code available on your website?
The 2008 version of the code is online for free on our website right 
now. Now that the adoption has been done, we are combining all the 
efforts of the different agencies and will have the final version 
online for free for anybody that wants to look at it. That could be 
as soon as the end of January.

What would you say to builders, architects and contractors who are 
worried about the economy and about what it will cost them in time 
and money to make these changes?
I was a contractor, too, and still have my contractor's license. Not 
only was I a contractor,  I was also a local enforcement official. So 
I feel their pain, and I try to keep all of that in perspective as we 
develop and move forward with these codes. I've kind of been on 
several sides of this fence, which helps as we move through the 
process.
I just believe in our economy. I believe it's going to turn around, 
and I believe this is going to be part of the turnaround. A lot of 
people are saying this will create jobs, that our code is very much a 
part of the whole green movement. We are hearing that from the 
commercial industry, the building industry - they believe that this 
will create jobs and that it's going to be a good thing ultimately. 
Every change comes, we adjust and we move on.
Thank you.

For details on the CALGreen go to http://images.emaildirect.com/clients/
govpressoffice847/GreenBuildingCodeOnepager.pdf.

For the CALGreen website, go to: http://www.CCBSC.ca.gov/
CALGreen/default.htm

For the CCBSC's response to criticism from environmental groups go 
to: http://images.emaildirect.com/clients/govpressoffice847/
GreenBuildingCodeOnepagerMythvsFact.pdf.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.permaculture-guilds.org/pipermail/southern-california-permaculture/attachments/20100721/654b4ea3/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: game-changer.jpg
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 81629 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www.permaculture-guilds.org/pipermail/southern-california-permaculture/attachments/20100721/654b4ea3/attachment.obj>