California Green Building Standards Take Effect Jan 1, 2011

California's Green Building Standards (CalGreen) go into effect January 1, 2011. What should the development community and the city councils that must adopt these requirements know about the changes in practice required by CalGreen?

The intent was to make buildings more sustainable and more efficient in California as we're looking forward and meeting AB 32. It has been determined that our mandatory provisions would assist AB 32, although that is not the driving force behind the code, but it is a supporting factor. California has been in a drought so there are policies, certainly by the governor, to move forward water reductions and savings in California. Another factor is overall building efficiency, in terms of air quality, waste management, and the use of material in a building. Looking at the built environment from that perspective was the main thrust behind the standards.

In terms of the effect or impact on developers or builders, we worked very closely with the building industry in the development of the provisions to ensure that we were not negatively impacting the industry, especially in this economy. We know they're in a recovery mode, trying to get back on track. We also worked closely with the cities and counties to ensure that they understood the enforcement responsibilities. Some of it is very similar to what they already do. In terms of water efficiency, there are already requirements for low-flush toilets and low-flow fixtures. This ratchets it down a little further. There is already enforcement on energy requirements, so this adds to that. We already do indoor air quality issues, but we kind of changed it.

Areas that will change are waste management and the use of recycled materials in a building. We've spent a lot of time over the last year, and continue to do so, training and reaching out to the industry-architects, engineers, local city and county building departments, planning departments, and plan checkers, as well as working with builders, to reach out and educate, train, and inform them about what's coming January 1.

CalGreen is one of the nation's first state level mandatory green building standards. To what building types does CalGreen apply?

CalGreen applies differently depending on the occupancy, but itdoes include residential, commercial buildings, and schools, allo of which all have some level of mandatory features in there. Hospitals have been exempt from the energy code in California. Hospitals don't any mandatory provisions in CalGreen, but they have "reach standards"-or optional standards-to make their buildings more energy efficient. They're looking in the future at moving some of those into mandatory, but right now those are voluntary.

CalGreen sets minimum standards; many jurisdictions have already adopted such standards. Elaborate on the minimums now required and on how jurisdictions have influenced the new state level mandate.

At the time we developed this, which began three and a half years ago, we looked at the work of local jurisdictions not only in California but also outside of California. Within California, about 5 percent of the jurisdictions had done a level of either voluntary or mandatory provisions. We found that they were sporadic and used different standards, for example, some were using Build It Green, some were using California Green Builders, and some were using LEED. Even when they did use the same program they may have applied them differently.

Our effort set uniform minimum standards. We looked at what everybody was doing-we didn't want to reinvent the wheel. We looked at what they were doing and incorporated those into a minimum, working with the industry to make sure that those minimums provided both substantive measures in terms of sustainability and efficiency and that they were cost effective. State law permits a local jurisdiction to go over and above the minimums, like San Francisco and Los Angeles. There are cities, such as Stockton, that have adopted the minimum. There will be a number of jurisdictions in the state that do that.

You mentioned indoor water and reuse. What are some of the key requirements in CalGreen regarding water fixtures and their use?

For indoor water use there is a 20 percent water reduction. There are two ways to do that-what we call a performance measure to set a baseline and then set fixtures and their use depending on how they want to achieve that, or they can do it prescriptively, so they change all their fixtures to achieve a 20 percent reduction. Outdoor irrigation use is roughly a 50 percent minimum on irrigation.

In terms of waste management, we've set a minimum for all construction-based reduction, either recycling or reuse of materials, at 50 percent to keep it out of landfills. We have a minimum for the use of volatile organic compound materials similar to the Southern California Air Quality Management District's standards. We've spread those throughout the state to provide better indoor air quality. Efficient vehicle parking-if somebody uses a carpool or an electric vehicle, it gives them a certain percentage of preferred parking locations on site-and bicycle parking are other ways for people to reduce the impact of vehicle travel on air quality.

The city of Los Angeles this month adopted these new state building codes. One of the sticky issues addressed in the debate was enforcement-the number of Building and Safety staff members required to oversee and implement CalGreen. How did your commission address the minimum city staffing required by the new building code?

It depends on what level they chose. The city of L.A. has gone over and above. They've included existing buildings and other things that will require additional staffing. We looked at it from the standpoint that every local jurisdiction does enforcement; they can increase fees or they set their own fees as they decide to. We don't set fees up at the state level. But many things, such as water and indoor air quality, things of that nature, are already being enforced at the local level, so that wouldn't necessarily require increased staffing.

As it does with many things with the state, local jurisdictions can utilize third party inspectors or special inspectors, which would not require increased staffing. A consultant can provide the special inspection services or plan check services.

The California Green Building Standards is just one of a series of efforts by California to adopt climate change mandates. How have you integrated the building code mandates with the other efforts that the state is implementing?

As we developed the code, we worked with a lot of other state agencies, not as closely with the PUC because they regulate up to building not actually in the building. We did work closely with the Energy Commission, ARB, the Department of Water Resources, Department of General Services, and Cal Recycle. We got their expert input. ARB came up with their own assessment, estimating that the mandatory measures of CalGreen would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by three million metric tons by the year 2020.

We did not want to create confusion by mandating any new additional energy requirements in the CalGreen code. We connected to the statewide energy code in that regard. Anything mandatory would come from the Energy Commission through the energy code.

A month ago, The Planning Report published an interview with leadership from KB Homes and BYD-America about their new energy-plus, solar homes of the future in Lancaster. What in CalGreen will incentivize or mandate the use of renewables and smart grid in homes of the future?

We don't have anything specific relating to that in our mandatory provisions. We do have voluntary measures or optional measures, designs that are not really incentives but ways to encourage people to use buildings that have on-site renewable energy but nothing specific.

How are the new standards being received by the development community and by the cities that have to adopt CalGreen's provisions?

The response has been very positive, but there is always a mixed bag with new regulations. Because we spent a lot of time reaching out, we have the full support of the California Building Industry Association, who has members such as KB Homes and those. We worked with the AIA, which also gave support. We got support from NRDC and the Environmental Defense Fund, as well as a couple of the labor unions. The Pipe Trades Council and Laborers International have spoke in support of the regulations, along with the California Chamber Commerce on the commercial side of things. For the most part, from an organizational standpoint, we got a lot of support and a lot of positive response as we moved forward.

That's not to say that everybody is going to be fully supportive. As we've noticed in the past, there's going to be somebody that hasn't really been paying attention and probably about November or December will wonder what's going on. The reaction to the reduction in the lead on plumbing fixtures a few years ago is typical. They gave three years leeway-and this is a state law, not even a regulation-and as it took effect last year we were getting a lot of calls, even though it wasn't us implementing it. People hadn't noticed it and suddenly were concerned about it. We expect some of that, but for the most part it has been positively received. Once it gets implemented, people will accept it and move on.

Lastly, elaborate on the role of the California Business Standards Commission in developing and encouraging adoption of the CalGreen?

We have been working closely with local jurisdictions, helping any that are interested receiving help. A lot of them have their own green building systems, but we're willing to work with anybody to do their ordinance. In terms of education and training, we've been working for a year. We've been working both with private organizations, and we've gone through some public-private partnerships, assisting them, reaching out, and training. We're also sending out staff to do training as much as possible, to anyone who requested it. We put on some of our own trainings here in Sacramento at our offices. The Department of Housing and Community Development is also doing the same type of outreach that we are to assist with the residential standards that are going into effect. The Division of the State Architect is doing training for the standards that apply to public schools.

There's a full effort to educate the public, educate the enforcement community, and educate the industry as best as possible to have a smooth transition and move into the implementation phase of the new code.