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Sierra Club California, Others Oppose Weak Green Building Rules
By Jim Metropulos
Sierra Club California
Environmentalists and California’s legislative leaders are disappointed with the direction the Building Standards Commission has chosen to take with its recent amendments to the 2007 California Building Standards Code, and with its draft Green Building Standards.
At a meeting May 6 in Natomas, the commissioners will hear comments on the rules, just before adopting them. Sierra Club California will join other environmental groups in denouncing the voluntary standards.
Instead of adopting strong, industry-wide rules that would put California at the forefront of green technology, the BSC tinkered with a few energy conservation and public housing rules and let most commercial and residential builders off the hook. If adopted, these rules would already be considered outmoded by those cities and counties that have put much stronger standards in place – and could discourage the growth of genuinely green construction companies and suppliers.
As global warming looms and energy prices spike, it’s the wrong time for “business as usual” at the BSC. Adopting tough standards now will provide a strong foundation for the 2010 building code change.
This certainly isn’t an auspicious beginning to a process Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to get started in October 2007, when he said he’d be “directing the California Building Standards Commission to work with specified state agencies on the adoption of green building standards for residential, commercial, and public building construction.” (see AB 888 veto message). A cadre of California lawmakers, including Senate President pro Tempore Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, already wrote an April 18 letter urging the Commission to take a more constructive course.
“California is a world leader in environmental requirements; we do not see the value in establishing optional regulations that fail to establish even a baseline for green building,” the letter states.
Like Sierra Club California, these key leaders denounce the BSC’s broad embrace of all wood products as green. Only those wood products harvested sustainably should count as green products – and even more renewable building materials like bamboo should be considered even greener.
Even though some industry sources say building green adds expense, existing demand already has driven the price of building green down to the point where it costs about the same to build sustainably as it does to use old-fashioned practices. Construction standards that encourage these practices – instead of continuing to allow the use of unsustainable materials and procedures– can only stimulate further innovation in this growing area.
Further, the commission failed to consider the important part land use has in how green a building is. An energy-and-water efficient building built in an infill area has a much lower environmental footprint than a similar building in the suburbs.
For years, California builders and architects have led the nation in designing safe, inspiring buildings. Now we have a chance to tower over the rest of the world in sustainable design as well. The Building Standards Commission must reverse its current course and begin to engage in continued discussions of meaningful, enforceable standards.
Jim Metropulos is a senior advocate for Sierra Club California.
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