Governments push developers to go green
Next spring, the Washington Nationals will take the field in the first baseball stadium to meet energy efficiency and environmental standards developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The stadium will feature energy-efficient lighting, water-conserving plumbing and an intricate stormwater management system that will enable water to be reused on-site. Recycled materials are being used in the stadium's construction.
D.C. officials expect the stadium to spur development around the facility. Building an environmentally smart stadium shows developers that the city expects them to go green as well, says Mayor Adrian Fenty.
Leading by example is the most common way governments are promoting green building. Many states and federal agencies require their new buildings and leased space to meet high energy efficiency standards.
But Washington, D.C., and a handful of other localities are going a step further: They're requiring all major new commercial buildings to meet these standards as well.
Buildings are getting a lot of attention in the fight against global warming because they account for 39 percent of the energy used every year in the United States, according to the U.S. Green Building Council.
Many developers are building more energy-efficient buildings on their own. The council has certified nearly 900 buildings under its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, and another 6,500 projects await certification.
More tenants are demanding energy-efficient buildings, not only to be good corporate citizens but also to save on energy bills. Meanwhile, the cost of building green is going down as the supply of materials needed to meet LEED guidelines increases, says Tom Bisacquino, president of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.
Home builders are going green, as well. The National Association of Home Builders has developed guidelines for environmentally sound building practices. By 2010, about 10 percent of new homes will be green, according to a survey of NAHB members.
By 2015, green homes "will just be accepted," says NAHB Vice President Bob Jones.
Offering developers incentives to go green is a good approach to get more on board, Bisacquino says.
That's why NAIOP is researching which incentives work the best and plans to draw up model legislation for localities to consider, Bisacquino says.
The U.S. Green Building Council, meanwhile, thinks the government should increase its research on green building technologies, which now accounts for only 0.2 percent of all federally funded research.
And the U.S. Conference of Mayors wants Congress to create new block grants for states and localities to use in updating building codes, conducting energy audits and developing conservation programs.
Buildings annually account for:
- 39% of U.S. primary energy use
- 70% of U.S. resource consumption
- 15 trillion gallons of water use
- 136 million tons of construction and demolition debris
Source: U.S. Green Building Council
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