Green Building Law Update

Environmental Law and Sustainability for Business

Archives: Green Building

USGBC Wants You to Comment on the Next Version of LEED

By Stuart Kaplow on July 14, 2019 Posted in Green Building, LEED

The U. S. Green Building Council is looking for the future of LEED and has officially opened a call for feedback and ideas for the next version of LEED. This is an opportunity for anyone and everyone to influence the next version of the most widely used green building rating system in the world. With … Continue Reading

Net Zero Lawsuit Filed Against Home Builder

By Stuart Kaplow on June 30, 2019 Posted in Green Building

A lawsuit has been commenced in Maryland alleging that two net zero homes are not. The facts are gleaned from a review of the court pleadings and are instructive for everyone buying or selling a green building. The complaint alleges the defendant home builder and subcontractors represented “that their new homes would be “net zero” … Continue Reading

Brownfield Laws can Save Green Building and the Planet

By Stuart Kaplow on June 23, 2019 Posted in Federal, Green Building, LEED

It is widely accepted that the greenest building is one already built. So, why then on the 20th anniversary of many state brownfield programs, is there so little correlation between green buildings and brownfields? Green building ratings systems, standards and codes expend a great deal of verbiage on aims reducing embodied carbon, including the currently … Continue Reading

Maryland Reverting to Certifiable In Lieu of Certified Green Building

By Stuart Kaplow on June 9, 2019 Posted in Green Building, Green Globes, IgCC, LEED

In response to an act of the Maryland legislature in 2018, the state is proposing a watershed revamp of its current mandatory green building requirements for new public school buildings. The public is being invited to comment on the proposal. Existing State Finance and Procurement Section 4-809(f) was amended adding new section (6), providing in … Continue Reading

LEED Credit is Designed to Eliminate Illegal Wood in Buildings

By Stuart Kaplow on March 24, 2019 Posted in Green Building, LEED

The U.S. Green Building Council is being applauded for the release last week of the new pilot credit intended “to reduce the risk that illegally sourced, harvested or traded wood products are used in building.” The LEED BD+C: New Construction v4 MRpc127 – Timber Traceability pilot credit “is designed to up efforts to eliminate the … Continue Reading

Resilience is the Future of Real Estate and USGBC Spells it RELi

By Stuart Kaplow on March 17, 2019 Posted in Green Building, resilience

Last Friday, Hudson Yards, the largest private real estate development in the country opened, but what the $25 Billion project may become best known for is that is designed for resilience from its giant “submarine doors” underground that can be closed to keep out storm surges to its own power plant that can keep the … Continue Reading

2018 IgCC – A Fast Paced Deep Dive

By Stuart Kaplow on November 25, 2018 Posted in Green Building, IgCC

The 2018 International Green Construction Code was released on November 8, 2018 by the U.S. Green Building Council, International Code Council, ASHRAE and the Illuminating Engineering Society. Make no mistake, the 203 page document unveiled by the coterie of trade group authors and available from the ICC for sale to the public (.. click here … Continue Reading

Green Building Codes Not Eligible for Copyright Protection

By Stuart Kaplow on October 28, 2018 Posted in Codes and Regulations, Green Building

A decision earlier this month by the Eleventh Circuit United States Courts Of Appeals goes further than other modern courts in describing that building codes when adopted by local government cannot be copyrighted. Ruling that “the law,” whether by statute, ordinance, regulations, or code, and even when its source is a judicial opinion, is not … Continue Reading

Is There Lead in the Drinking Water of Your Green School?

By Stuart Kaplow on October 7, 2018 Posted in Environmental, Green Building

EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree that there is no known safe level of lead in a child’s blood. Lead is harmful to health, especially for children. Though most lead exposure occurs when people eat paint chips and inhale dust, the EPA estimates that up to 20% of lead exposure comes … Continue Reading

Net Zero Certification Program Announced by USGBC

By Stuart Kaplow on September 23, 2018 Posted in Green Building, LEED

Much as NASA developed dozens of life changing and useful inventions that benefitted all as it raced to the moon, USGBC may be the catalyst for new, cutting edge technologies in the race to net zero buildings. There is no doubt that the newly announced LEED net zero certification program is aspirational. LEED has always … Continue Reading

Greenbuild – The Target Rich Environment for Green People

By Stuart Kaplow on September 16, 2018 Posted in Green Building, LEED

Friends from Lorax Partnerships at Greenbuild

I am often asked, “how can I expand my green building business?” And I have offered the same response for more than a decade – attend the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo (.. yes, you will have to talk with people while you are there). This year Greenbuild is in Chicago from November 14 thru … Continue Reading

ESG, including Advantaged by Green Building, Requires Risk Oversight

By Stuart Kaplow on September 9, 2018 Posted in Environmental, Green Building, Sustainability

Stuart Kaplow ESG Report

Investments by individuals and institutions driven by environmental, social and governance matters continue to remain front and center in the minds of boards of directors, government regulators and the media. Of course, there is no single or even widely accepted definition of ESG and some have suggested that any analysis of environmental, social and governance … Continue Reading

Modern Slavery Exists and We Must Stop It Now

By Stuart Kaplow on September 2, 2018 Posted in Green Building, Sustainability

There is a lot of green building going on at BREEAM USA from a pilot program for BREEAM In-Use with multifamily properties to the certification of the first BREEAM USA In-Use office tower, but what is no doubt most impactful is the BRE Ethical Labour Sourcing Standard enabling businesses to commit to eliminating any possibility of … Continue Reading

Green Globes New Multifamily Rating Systems Respond to the Market

By Stuart Kaplow on August 26, 2018 Posted in Green Building, Green Globes

On July 11 the Green Building Initiative launched the Green Globes Multifamily for New Construction and Green Globes Multifamily for Existing Buildings. While certainly there is a market in developers of newly constructed multifamily buildings, spending on multifamily construction was more than $61 Billion in 2017, being 18% of all new residential construction spending, up … Continue Reading

The Hottest Environmental Trend is Sustainable Business Practices

By Stuart Kaplow on June 24, 2018 Posted in Environmental, Green Building, Sustainability

In a dramatic shift the fastest growing environmental issue in 2018 is sustainable business practices. At a time when many issues are politically charged, including environmental matters, a major shift in public opinion is happening. There are dramatic changes ongoing as a consequence of the last Presidential election that will result in less and different … Continue Reading

Green Building that Cleans the Air

By Stuart Kaplow on June 17, 2018 Posted in Green Building, Green Globes, LEED

Today’s green building standards, rating systems and codes are stale, largely based in decades old science and do not go far enough to be efficacious for most business to invest in. This is no longer a genuine debate over the negative environmental impact that buildings have on the planet. But the green building industrial complex … Continue Reading

Your ENERGY STAR Score is About to Fall Precipitously

By Stuart Kaplow on June 10, 2018 Posted in Codes and Regulations, Energy, Green Building, Green Globes, LEED

Building owners that utilize ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager will see a dramatic change in the 1 to 100 ENERGY STAR scores after August 26, 2018. Every score model we reviewed saw a drop in ENERGY STAR score except hotels. You have 75 days to act. The change is significant for buildings pursuing LEED or Green … Continue Reading

European Data Privacy Law Applicable to Green Buildings

By Stuart Kaplow on May 6, 2018 Posted in Codes and Regulations, Green Building

With the upcoming May 25, 2018 effective date for the new European General Data Protection Regulation, the European Union law drafted to provide greater protections for the personal data of individuals, it is a good time to review and consider the large quantity of data generated by green buildings. The EU GDPR has long arms … Continue Reading

LEED v4.1 Building Operations and Maintenance is Live

By Stuart Kaplow on March 25, 2018 Posted in Green Building, LEED

LEED version 4.1 is now a reality with the release for use today, March 26, of LEED v4.1 O+M – Building Operations and Maintenance. “We are excited to introduce LEED v4.1 in beta, the latest update to the LEED rating system,” said Melissa Baker, senior vice president for Technical Core with USGBC, when we spoke … Continue Reading

Saint Paul Green With Envy

By Stuart Kaplow on January 21, 2018 Posted in City, Green Building, Green Globes

When the Saint Paul City Council votes this Wednesday on Ordinance 17-60 it should amend the legislation to not delete, from the existing law, Green Globes as one of the approved green building standards. The work product of an advisory committee of experts, Ord 17-60 Sustainable Building Regulation Ordinance, alters and amends the 2009 Resolution … Continue Reading

Green Globes Acquired by GBI Expanding Sustainability

By Stuart Kaplow on January 14, 2018 Posted in Green Building, Green Globes

Last week Green Building Initiative announced that it had completed the bold and innovative acquisition of Green Globes from JLL and I had an opportunity to speak with Vicki Worden, President and CEO of GBI and Bob Best, Executive Vice President of JLL. In 2008, JLL, a Fortune 500 company with more than $50 billion … Continue Reading

2018 will be a Year for New Green Building Standards, Codes and Rating Systems

By Stuart Kaplow on January 7, 2018 Posted in Green Building

2018 will be a watershed year in the course of green building standards, codes and rating systems. There has been no other single calendar year that has seen the breadth of substantive change that is before us. In 2018 there will be new versions of LEED, ASHARE 189.1, IgCC, ICC 700, Green Globes and .. … Continue Reading

Green Building Data Risk as an Opportunity

By Stuart Kaplow on December 3, 2017 Posted in Green Building, LEED

Green buildings generate large quantities of data. In an age when many have opinions about Edward Snowden’s disclosures, foreign state sponsored hacking, and Uber’s massive customer data hack, most people have not considered matters of data protection from their real estate, green building or otherwise. The topic is too broad to comprehensively address in a … Continue Reading

Arc is Electrifying Green Building

By Stuart Kaplow on November 26, 2017 Posted in Green Building, LEED

Scot Horst at Greenbuild

Next week will be a year since the launch of Arc. Already approaching a Billion square of projects not only in the United States but also from India to Sweden and Israel to Bhutan, if you are not familiar with the Arc platform, that helps a building owner measure performance and benchmark against others, you … Continue Reading