Clean Tech Opportunities in Green Building Legislation

AuthorGabriel Schnitzler
Pages11

    A real estate associate in the Palo Alto office of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., a full service national law firm representing energy, clean tech, and real estate companies. Special thanks to Brady Berg, a partner in the firm’s corporate and energy and clean tech practices, for his help in conceiving this article. Thanks also to Kevin Kappel, a project analyst in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, for his assistance in researching recent green building legislation. For more information, please e-mail me at gschnitzler@mintz.com.

Page 42

Introduction

In the past eight years, the threat of climate change has become increasingly clear. While oil prices have retreated recently, the untenability of continued U.S. dependence on dwindling fossil fuels controlled by unfriendly governments is now a common talking point of politicians and pundits. At the same time, interest in clean tech businesses has grown in the investment community. In the face of these challenges and opportunities, however, the federal response has, with some minor exceptions, been wanting. All that may change with the incoming administration.

But, even if the federal government continues to lag behind, there will still be a steady drumbeat of climate, energy efficiency, and green building legislation at the state and local level. Except where federal lands are concerned, real estate development has historically been regulated by cities and counties, with state governments setting minimum planning and subdivision standards. Consequently, local governments have been largely free to experiment with legislation requiring and encouraging greater energy efficiency and reduced environmental impacts in real estate projects.

This article describes some recent developments in green building legislation and suggests possible implications for the clean tech industry. Part I briefly describes why land use and building policies are critical for addressing energy and climate impacts, presenting a big opportunity for clean tech innovation. Part II reviews recent green building legislation, including: (1) ordinances tied to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards issued by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), with a focus on green building legislation in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C., (2) New York City’s Climate Protection Act, (3) Berkeley’s renewable energy and efficiency financing initiative, (4) California’s recently adopted Green Building Code, and (5) California’s AB 1881, which updates the state’s model landscape water efficiency ordinance. Part III concludes by observing that most green building legislation does not force developers to incorporate specific technologies (for example, on-site photovoltaic panels or geothermal heat pumps). Rather, the benefits to clean tech from green building legislation flow from increased awareness, comfort, and fluency with green building requirements and technologies among real estate developers, architects, investors, attorneys, government officials, and policymakers.

I Why Buildings Matter

The built environment presents an important opportunity for clean tech and environmental policy innovation for four reasons: (A) buildings account for a large chunk of energy use and environmental impacts; (B) half of the buildings existing in 2030 will have been constructed after the year 2000; (C) consequently, there is potentially a big market and good prospects for improvement through investments in efficiency and on-site alternative energy; and (D) development patterns and land use policy have spillover impacts on transportation and efforts to improve energy efficiency in automobiles.

Building Impacts

Bank robbers rob banks because that is where the money is. To make an equally obvious point, the built environment matters from an environmental and clean tech perspective because, according to the USGBC, buildings consume 70% of the electricity used in the United States, 39% of all primary energy use, and 12.2% of potable water use, and account for 39% of all carbon emissions.1

Page 43

Building Turnover and New Construction

Arthur C. Nelson, in a paper presented for the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, concludes that: “The nation had about 300 billion square feet of built space in 2000. By 2030, the nation will need about 427 billion square feet of built space to accommodate growth projections. About 82 billion of that will be from replacement of existing space and 131 will be new space. Thus, 50 percent of that 427 billion will have to be constructed between now and then.”2 Needless to say, this huge wave of new construction provides a large potential market for green building innovation.

“The nation had about 300 billion square feet of built space in 2000. By 2030, the nation will need about 427 billion square feet… to accommodate growth projections.”

Gains from Building Efficiency

Further improvements in building design and construction can generate substantial “negawatts,” a term coined by Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute to describe power availability created by efficiency measures rather than new power plants.3 Efficiency has a proven track record of success. A recent study by David Roland-Holst at UC Berkeley noted that, as a result of utility company efficiency incentives and tougher building and appliance standards, California per capita electricity use has remained flat over the last 30 years while nationwide electricity use has increased by almost 50%. “The results included saving more than 12,000 MW of peak demand (equivalent to avoiding 24 giant power plants), and about 40,000 GWh each year (equivalent to 15 percent of California’s energy consumption).”4 Appliance and building standards accounted for about half of these savings. The study notes that California building and appliance efficiency standards have saved more than $56 billion in electricity and natural gas costs and predicts further savings and job creation from additional efficiency measures.5

As discussed below, further improvements in California building design and efficiency will be implemented through the state’s Green Building Code.

Spillover Effects of Land Use Policy

In addition to impacts from power consumed in the construction and operation of buildings, the built environment has additional spillover impacts on energy use and climate by affecting traffic patterns. Twentieth century land use policies that subsidized highways, privileged single family residences, discouraged mixed use, set maximum densities, mandated off-street parking, and set minimum lot sizes conspired to increase dependence on cars and make suburban sprawl the dominant form of modern U.S. development.6 The Urban Land Institute has argued forcefully that unless land use policies change to promote compact development, increases in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) will wipe out any gains in efficiency and reduced carbon emissions from tougher vehicle efficiency standards.7

…unless land use policies change to promote compact development, increases in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) will wipe out any gains in efficiency and reduced carbon emissions from tougher vehicle efficiency standards.

II A Review of Recent Green Building Legislation

This Part reviews (A) the recent LEED-based green building ordinances adopted by select municipalities8, (B) New York City’s Climate Protection Act, (C) Berkeley’s Sustainable Energy Financing Districts, and (D) California’s Green Building Code and recent landscape water efficiency statute.

A LEED-Based Zoning Ordinances

The USGBC is a non-profit private organization that publishes voluntary green building design standards and certifies projects which meet those standards through its LEED Green Building Rating System.

LEED certification programs are tailored to different types of development and different stages of planning, specifically: New Construction (for new commercial development), Commercial Interiors (for tenant improvements to existing buildings), Core and Shell (for construction of the core and shell of new buildings, i.e., building envelopes, structure and HVAC), Retail, Homes, Schools, Healthcare, Existing Buildings: Operation and Maintenance (provides standards for ongoing operation of existing buildings not undergoing major renovation), and Neighborhood Development (this certification standard is in its pilot phase and will provide standards for sustainable neighborhoods and multi-building developments; LEED ND focuses primarily on project siting and infrastructure rather than specific building construction).

LEED awards points to projects that meet certain siting, design, and performance criteria. The LEED New Construction standard, for example, awards points for projects in the following areas: 1) “Sustainable Sites,” 2) “Water Efficiency,” 3) “Energy and Atmosphere,” 4) “Materials and Resources,” 5) “Indoor Environmental Quality,” and 5) “Innovation and Design Process.” Projects receive varying levels of LEED certification depending on the total number of points received. For example,Page 44 a LEED New Construction project must receive 26 out of 69 points to be “Certified,”...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT