San Francisco Goes Deep for Green Buildings! Just the Beginning, says Consultant.

Striving to regain its reputation for being the greenest city in the U.S., San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom submitted legislation to the City/County Board of Supervisors requiring LEED-certified green buildings from the private sector by 2012.

Mayor Gavin Newsom’s legislation would require all new residential high-rises, all commercial buildings over 5,000 square feet and all renovations over 25,000 square feet to become LEED certified by 2012. If implemented, the City’s green building standards (short of LEED certification) would affect all buildings requiring permit approval beginning in 2008. Already, the city “fast tracks” building permits for developers who agree to acquire LEED certification for their projects. I predict this is just the beginning: I foresee every large city (and many small ones) enacting similar green building legislation by 2009, despite the strong preference of the development community for voluntary approaches. The recent climate change conference in Bali has made the growing problem of carbon dioxide emissions too important for cities to ignore. And green buildings offer the most immediate and cost-effective way to respond to the growing climate change prevention imperative.

Posted by on 12/16/2007 at 07:56 PM