Posted on December 1, 2008 by Chris Cheatham

A Tale of Two Cities: Portland's Feebate

 Continuing our posts from GreenBuild, our next two posts will discuss two very different green building regulatory enforcement mechanisms from two very different cities.  The first city, Portland, has created a very innovative enforcement mechanism to enforce its stringent green building regulations. 

Portland is very similar to other cities in that they will require specific project to achieve varying LEED certification levels.  Portland's enforcement mechanism, however, is much different.  Called a "Feebate," Portland will require that some projects pay into a green building fund while other projects obtain rebates from the city.

Under the Feebate system, all new buildings built to code are assessed a fee.  If a project is built to LEED Silver, then the fee is waived and the owner obtains access to financing options.  Even better, if a project attains LEED Gold, the city writes the project owner a check! 

All money that is paid into the green building fund is used either for the incentives or to educate about green building.

Pretty neat, don't you think?  After the Holidays, Portland is coming out with its economic analysis of the plan, and I am looking forward to reviewing it with you. 

Photo Credit:  Scott_rtw

Tags: , , , ,
Trackbacks (4) Links to blogs that reference this article Trackback URL
http://www.greenbuildinglawupdate.com/admin/trackback/98236
Green Building Law Update - December 3, 2008 10:35 AM
Continuing our discussion of topics from Greenbuild, we now move to Los Angeles’ green building regulation. We have already highlighted Portland’s innovative Feebate enforcement mechanism. Los Angeles has created a very different enforcemen...
Green Building Law Update - December 8, 2008 10:02 AM
Last week, Green Building Law Update highlighted Portland's innovative green building regulation that includes a "Feebate" system to encourage green building development. According to this OregonLive article, City Commissioner Dan Saltzman un...
Green Building Law Update - December 17, 2008 12:45 PM
Green Building Law Update’s review of reasons to build green has somehow become a top 5 list. Here’s a recap of the first four reasons: 1. Increased opportunity to obtain financing 2. Build to the state of art 3. Distinguish...
Green Building Law Update - May 4, 2009 12:11 PM
The Washington D.C. government has recently began incorporating Social Media 2.0 into its public outreach. Agencies have Facebook pages, some are on Twitter and officials have even taken to participating in online chats with the public. I was very exci...
Comments (5) Read through and enter the discussion with the form at the end
Aga - December 1, 2008 2:25 PM

I knew I loved Portland for a reason. What a neat concept!

Tom Ranalli - December 2, 2008 9:21 AM

Great idea! In time, I'm sure Portland will realize great benefits from this innovative approach (perhaps financial, certainly environmental).

Rich Cartlidge - December 2, 2008 4:35 PM

Seems like a very innovative idea. A similar mechanism has been used elsewhere in Environmental law to reduce pollution and has been met with great success.

Chris Cheatham - December 10, 2008 10:02 AM

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Aga - I haven't been to Portland, but I need to check it out! Isn't this a great idea? I hope it works.

Tom - The Feebate system is a great concept for maintaining a financially viable green building regulation. We will probably see other cities implement a similar green building policy.

Rich - I would be interested to hear about similar mechanisms used in environmental law. Please tell me more.

Chris

Nils Davis - May 15, 2009 2:03 PM

Chris - do you have any updates on the success of the Portland Feebate program?

Nils

Post A Comment / Question Use this form to add a comment to this entry.







Remember personal info?
Send To A Friend Use this form to send this entry to a friend via email.