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Yahoo!By recent executive order, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made California the first state in the nation to adopt a green building code for ALL new construction. It's a sweeping policy change that will be voluntary until 2010 and then will become mandatory for all state, commercial, and private building. Considering that California is the most populous state in the country and still growing, with an economy larger than all but eight countries in the world, and that it is a trendsetter, the impacts of this mandate could be far reaching.
Barbara Hirsch
With environmentalists and construction industry representatives both working hard to influence the outcome, the final changes in building code rules were weaker than some would have liked, but the order will decrease energy and water use across the board and encourage the use of more sustainable materials in construction. New state buildings already have to be LEED certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) meaning that they have to meet more stringent requirements than other construction. LEED accreditation takes all aspects of a building into account, including associated transportation, ecosystems, and community.
In the United States alone, according to the U.S. Green Building Council, buildings account for:
- 70% of electricity consumption
- 39% of energy use
- 39% of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions
- 40% of raw materials use
- 30% of waste output in construction and demolition debris
- 12% of potable water consumption
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