Is Nobody Greener than California?
A storm of factors (public and private) is brewing to make California—already a green-building state—even greener, Snyder Langston director of sustainability Steve Gabbert tells us.
Steve details the legislation going into effect this year, including the new California Energy Code (Title 24-Part 6, 2013), California Green Building Standards Code (Title 24-Part 11, 2013), and the Nonresidential Building Energy Use Disclosure Program (AB 1103). But it’s more than new laws. The newly introduced LEED v4 is also gaining momentum. The commercial real estate industry "will see significant advances in energy efficiency from new requirements for adaptive lighting—lighting that automatically dims or shuts off when it’s not needed—demand response infrastructure, and better building controls,” Steve says. (Good for green, bad for ghosts, who used to use lighting control as their primary scare method.)
This year, Steve was elected to the Orange County Chapter of the USGBC's board of directors. Beyond mere energy efficiency, LEED v4 will create market transformation through new transparency requirements for manufacturers to disclose environmental and human health impacts, Steve notes. Pictured: Hyundai’s new HQ in Irvine, which is pursuing LEED Gold under LEED-NC 2009. Snyder Langston has been on site daily to deliver the massive project to the automaker.
Recently, the USGBC confirmed that California is, in fact, among the top states in the country for LEED-certified sustainable buildings. The org ranked the states according to certified space per capita in 2013, and by that metric California tied with New York for fifth, with 1.95 SF per resident. (Illinois was first, followed by Maryland, Virginia, and Massachusetts.) Pictured: DPR Construction’s Newport Beach office, which is LEED Gold.
