August 11, 2010

CALGreen: Mandatory Green Building Standards Take Effect in 2011

By ELIZABETH WATSON

Green BuildingCalifornia Green BuildingCalifornia’s first-in-the-nation set of mandatory green building standards for new construction is slated to take effect on January 1, 2011. Referred to officially as the California Green Building Standards Code, CALGreen applies to all new public and privately-constructed commercial and residential buildings. Integrated within the state’s Building Standards Code, it includes a matrix of mandatory requirements as well as two sets of voluntary measures tailored to residential and non-residential building classifications.

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July 8, 2010

Seller Beware: Does Your Building Make The Grade?

By ELIZABETH WATSON

Green BuildingGreen Commercial Building







Deadline Approaches for Disclosure of Energy Efficiency Rating of Commercial Buildings

One of the ongoing challenges in making the case for “green building” has been to monetize the value of high-efficiency features, such as reduced energy consumption. In a “light-bulb” moment, the California Legislature enacted Assembly Bill 1103 (“AB 1103”) in its 2007 legislative session as a means to assure that a building’s energy efficiency is a factor in certain sale, lease and loan transactions. Specifically, AB 1103 requires disclosure of energy-usage data of commercial buildings utilizing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager program (“EPA Portfolio Manager”). The thinking behind this new “statistic” is to quantify the benefits of energy-efficiency upgrades by providing a standardized metric for energy performance in the marketplace. With implementing regulations in process, the question is what will be required of building owners as the deadline for compliance approaches?

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Posted In: Elizabeth Watson , Green Building

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