Green Building Law Update

Environmental Law and Sustainability for Business

Archives: LEED

Buying a LEED Certified Building Is Easy But ..

By Stuart Kaplow on November 4, 2018 Posted in LEED

Despite that a frog told us all in a song lyric, “it’s not easy bein’ green,” it is easy to buy a green building, but .. And there are many good reasons for purchasing a green building that is LEED Certified. LEED gave us the technologies and methodologies revolutionizing the way we construct and occupy … Continue Reading

With Over $3.6 Trillion in Value You Should Pay Attention to GRESB

By Stuart Kaplow on September 30, 2018 Posted in GRESB, LEED

For the uninitiated GRESB assesses the sustainability performance of real estate and infrastructure portfolios worldwide. GRESB is the global environmental, social and governance (ESG) benchmark for real estate assets. GRESB’s stated “mission is to enhance and protect shareholder value by assessing and empowering sustainability practices in the real asset sector.” They do that by offering … 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

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

The World is being Forced to Rethink Recycling

By Stuart Kaplow on April 29, 2018 Posted in Environmental, Green Globes, LEED, recycling

Maybe not since Plato wrote about the value of reusing waste in the fourth century BC has recycling undergone the wide fluctuation, good and bad, that we are seeing right now. Today, the world has been forced to rethink its approach to waste. China is driving the change in recycling. Most recently, China imposed a … 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

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

LEED v4.1 Announced by USGBC at Greenbuild

By Stuart Kaplow on November 12, 2017 Posted in Green Building, LEED

LEED v4.1 Presentation at Greenbuild

The announcement of the upcoming release of the new LEED version 4.1 by the U.S. Green Building Council was no doubt the biggest story at Greenbuild 2017 in Boston last week. And that is saying a lot because Greenbuild is the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green building and there was much to … Continue Reading

Rhode Island goes for LEED for Neighborhood Development and SITES

By Stuart Kaplow on October 15, 2017 Posted in Codes and Regulations, LEED

The State of Rhode Island is expanding its longstanding Green Buildings Act adding built landscapes to the list of public projects that must be built to recognized green building standards. Rhode Island has since 2008 mandated the public construction projects larger than 5,000 gross square feet “shall be designed and constructed to at least the … Continue Reading

50 Shades of Green in Montgomery County

By Stuart Kaplow on October 1, 2017 Posted in Codes and Regulations, IgCC, LEED

Green building will remain mandatory for new construction in Montgomery County, Maryland and effective December 1, 2017, the International Green Construction Code 2012 will be a permitted alternative. Montgomery County was among the first local jurisdictions in the country, in 2008, to adopt a mandatory green building law for private building, requiring most new construction … Continue Reading

The Second Best Way to Mitigate Your Risk in Green Building

By Stuart Kaplow on September 24, 2017 Posted in Green Building, IgCC, LEED

The best way to mitigate risk in your green building project are properly drafted contract documents prepared by this law firm or by another attorney with green building experience. That may sound self serving, but it is true. As I posted in this blog less than a year ago, Less than 20% of Green Building … Continue Reading

LEED Commercial Interiors can Save the Planet

By Stuart Kaplow on September 17, 2017 Posted in Climate Change, Green Building, LEED

By Katie Stanford and Stuart Kaplow LEED Commercial Interiors projects present the best single opportunity for greening buildings. The proof is in the numbers. There are more than 5.6 million existing commercial buildings in the United States today. And despite the wildly successful U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (the ubiquitous acronym for Leadership in Energy … Continue Reading

Green Globes to be Approved in Maryland

By Stuart Kaplow on August 27, 2017 Posted in Codes and Regulations, Green Building, Green Globes, LEED, State

Last week the Maryland Green Building Council voted unanimously to recommend that Green Globes, at the two Green Globes level, be approved by the Maryland Secretaries of Budget and Management and General Services as a “high performance building” as defined in Maryland law. The vote is being widely heralded as a significant step forward in … Continue Reading

Eat, Pray, Greenbuild?

By Stuart Kaplow on July 30, 2017 Posted in Green Building, LEED

I am often asked, “how can I expand my green building business?” My answer is simple and the same response I have offered for years, attend the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo. This year Greenbuild is in Boston from November 8 – 10. I do not claim any particular business marketing prowess. Nor can I … Continue Reading

You Need a Green Building Consultant (Who Speaks for the Trees)

By Stuart Kaplow on June 18, 2017 Posted in Green Building, LEED, Sustainability

The Lorax Partnerships Team

We are often asked “what is the best way to assure success in a green building project?” Whether that query is from a Fortune 1000 businesses or an architect, the answer is the same, have the owner engage an experienced green building consultant as early as possible in the project. Which often leads to a … Continue Reading

Retailers Pay Millions for Hazardous Waste Violations

By Stuart Kaplow on June 4, 2017 Posted in Codes and Regulations, LEED

Retailers across the nation are buttressing their trash disposal practices after Dollar General Stores and Big Lots Stores paid Millions of dollars to settle civil suits for environmental violations for the unlawful disposal of hazardous waste, including customer returned merchandise and batteries. Most businesses should have a solid waste management plan to provide staff with … Continue Reading

Is the 2018 IgCC Doomed to Fail?

By Stuart Kaplow on May 14, 2017 Posted in Codes and Regulations, Green Building, Green Globes, IgCC, LEED

Last week the ICC and ASHRAE issued joint news releases on the status of the “unified green building code that could become the foundation for LEED certification” that will be published as the 2018 version of the International Green Construction Code. This blog regularly advances the postulate that green building is the ideal means of … Continue Reading

New Sustainable Projects Exhibit in 2017 AIA Contract Documents

By Stuart Kaplow on May 7, 2017 Posted in Construction, Green Building, LEED

If you are regular reader of this blog you are aware there has been a hiatus in postings. I have been climbing in the Himalayas in Nepal for the past month and, in fact, am composing this blog post sitting in the lobby of the Yak and Yeti hotel in Kathmandu, as I begin to … Continue Reading

FITWEL may be the Future of Building Sustainability

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

FITWEL, a cost effective, high impact, health promoting building certification, may be the best thing since sliced bread. The well being of building occupants is increasingly being described as the number one driver of sustainability. In the in the U.S. alone there are more than 120 million employees who spend an average of 8.1 hours … Continue Reading

Apply to be a Member of the ASHRAE Committee for Standard 189.1

By Stuart Kaplow on March 5, 2017 Posted in Codes and Regulations, Green Building, IgCC, LEED

ASHRAE is looking for new members to serve on the ASHRAE Project Committee for SSPC 189.1 Standard for the Design of High Performance Green Buildings Except Low Rise Residential Buildings. The deadline to make application for Project Committee membership is March 15, 2017. Standards produced by ASHRAE are consensus documents developed and published to define … Continue Reading

Green Building Transactional Due Diligence

By Stuart Kaplow on January 15, 2017 Posted in Green Building, Green Globes, IgCC, LEED, Local Government

As ever larger numbers of green buildings are bought and sold, due diligence related to the green features of commercial buildings takes on an increasing importance. But apparently most real estate due diligence checklists are stuck in the 1980s and while they address matters ranging from title and zoning to tenants and leases, as well … Continue Reading