To start this post, I want to thank Rick Fedrizzi , CEO of the United States Green Building Council. On February 12, I attended a breakfast hosted by Bisnow at which Mr. Fedrizzi was the guest speaker. I really appreciated his speech – he did not ignore the current economic climate but talked about the opportunities that will emerge from the green … Continue Reading
[Green Building Law Update is achieving another first: our first guest post! Christopher G. Hill is a Virginia construction attorney and recently started a legal blog, Construction Law Musings. I first met Chris through Twitter and I appreciate his willingness to discuss green building legal issues.] By: Christopher G. Hill Lately terms such as LEED … Continue Reading
Last week, we discussed a law in Virginia that prohibits municipalities from creating green building codes or mandates. In short, Dillon’s Rule only grants to municipalities those powers that are explicitly granted by the state. The Virginia Code has specifically granted the power to create a building code to the state; municipalities, on the other … Continue Reading
Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking at the William and Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review symposium "It’s Not Easy Building Green." The students did a fantastic job and the audience was large and engaged. In particular, Mark Pike organized an interactive web 2.0 experience for the symposium that was quite impressive. Many … Continue Reading
I hope you survived the dramatic cliffhanger from Monday. Now, time to answer the question, how do Virginia cities and counties regulate green building if they cannot adopt a building code? Such a dramatic pause for such a mundane answer: zoning ordinances. The Virginia code specifically delegates to the municipalities the right to create zoning … Continue Reading
This past weekend, I spent a lot of time preparing a slideshow for the William & Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review Symposium, "It’s Not Easy Being Green." As you may recall, I will be presenting on green building regulations in Virginia. Guess what we are going to discuss on Green Building Law Update this … Continue Reading
Today, we bring you a first on Green Building Law Update: my first radio interview. Vik Duggal, over at Konstructr, was kind enough to invite me to be a guest on his KCast interview series. Konstructr is basically Facebook for the construction industry. Some of the topics we discuss include green building attorneys, President Obama’s proposed economic recovery package, … Continue Reading
Back in October of 2008, in the midst of the economic turmoil, Green Building Law Update wrote that governments should reconsider requiring green building certification for projects. With the deepening economic recession, some governments are now supporting green building projects while specifically not requiring certification. A recent New York Times article highlighted green building developments … Continue Reading
Here at Green Building Law Update, sometimes we wonder if we are just talking to our parents and significant other. Then we get a comment or a great email from one of our readers and we realize someone is actually paying attention. With that said, what happened this past week in the green building industry … Continue Reading
Green Building Law Update came across an interesting lawsuit in Texas challenging a green cement regulation. First, here’s a little background on green cement regulations: Green cement resolutions put pressure on wet kiln operators to either update their smog-causing pollution controls to the level of dry kilns, or replace their wet kilns with new dry … Continue Reading
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 enforcement mechanism that, frankly, may cause problems. Under Los Angeles’ Green Building Program Standard of Sustainability, projects meeting certain size requirements must: (1) include … Continue Reading
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 … Continue Reading
Here at Green Building Law Update, we remain troubled by the disbanding of the proposed ASHRAE 189.1 green building code committee, but we have to point out one bright spot. As you may recall, last week we discussed the merits of the “Proposed Standard 189: Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise … Continue Reading
Last week, Green Building Law Update questioned whether governments should be requiring LEED certification through regulations and mandates. Assuming governments should get out of the green building certification business, what then should governments do to support green construction strategies? There are generally two options, one of which we will discuss today: green building codes. Green … Continue Reading
In continuing our week of epiphanies, here’s another one that struck us here at Green Building Law Update: should governments consider getting out of the green building certification process? Yes, I realize this epiphany is out there and that practically every state has implemented some sort of green building regulation. Over the past few months, … Continue Reading
Over the weekend, we here at Green Building Law Update had some green building epiphanies. So let’s start with epiphany number one. As I was driving into my law firm’s office in Tyson’s Corner on Saturday, I looked out at the construction and thought to myself, why am I not writing about that? This isn’t … Continue Reading
Last week, Green Building Law Update wrote about the Dillon Rule and how it is thwarting Virginia cities’ green building regulations. Under the Dillon Rule, the Virginia legislature is empowered with passing building codes, thus preempting city building codes or building regulations. As we detailed, Indiana also follows the Dillon Rule but was successful in … Continue Reading
To finish off the week at Green Building Law Update, we are going to attempt to answer another reader question with the help of all the readers out there. In a previous post, Anna MacLeod posted the following question: I need to find some DC-based architect, commercial building development companies, etc… Anyone who would be affected … Continue Reading
Now that our discussion of Southern Builders v. Shaw Development is over (whew!), Green Building Law Update is going to take the rest of the week to answer some reader questions. The first question comes from Erica: How should a locality located in a "Dillon Rule" state, such as Virginia, go about establishing a mandatory … Continue Reading
In a previous post, GBLU referenced problems with a green building performance bond requirement in Washington D.C.’s Green Building Act. So what are the apparent problems with this green performance bond? On August 13, 2007, the Surety and Fidelity Association of America and the National Association of Surety Bond Producers detailed the problems with the … Continue Reading
As part of GBLU’s monitoring of green building regulations and codes, GBLU will provide timely information regarding government green building programs that may be of interest to you. Below is information about a Green Roof subsidy being offered by the Government of the District of Columbia, District Department of the Environment. Please note, applications are … Continue Reading
As most individuals involved with green building probably know, green building is just one strategy to combat the overall global warming and carbon emissions issue. Green building strategies, it is believed, reduce CO2 emissions, thus helping combat global warming. Numerous cities, states, entities and individuals have pledged to become carbon neutral. A pledge of carbon … Continue Reading
As green building becomes more popular, new green building regulations continue to pop up in U.S. cities. The Aspen Daily News recently highlighted proposed changes to the Aspen Commercial Building Codes that will incorporate very progressive green building strategies. Among the green building strategies, the proposed codes will “require either a photovoltaic solar panel system [solar … Continue Reading
