Green Building Law Update

Environmental Law and Sustainability for Business

Tag Archives: Kaplow

One Trillion Trees

By Stuart Kaplow on February 16, 2020 Posted in Climate Change, Environmental

The One Trillion Trees Initiative was launched at the World Economic Forum last month. When President Trump announced that the United States would join the tree planting initiative on January 21 in Davos among more than 3,000 world government, business, and NGO leaders, more than half of whom joined the commitment, it garnered little reaction … Continue Reading

Migratory Bird Treaty Act Will Apply Only to Intentional Takes

By Stuart Kaplow on February 9, 2020 Posted in Codes and Regulations, Environmental, Solar Panel, wind turbine

Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a rule clarifying that the scope of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act only extends to conduct intentionally injuring birds. Conduct that results in the unintentional (incidental) injury or death of migratory birds is not prohibited under the act. As I described in a 2017 blog post, … Continue Reading

Low Carbon Concrete for the First Time Required by Law

By Stuart Kaplow on February 2, 2020 Posted in Climate Change, Green Building, Local Government

The negative environmental impact of concrete, the most common man made substance on Earth, has not been meaningfully responded to in 2020. Cement use in concrete is the largest single material source of greenhouse gas emissions in building. Concrete is the largest single material source of embodied emissions in buildings, and makes for more than … Continue Reading

FERC Decision Puts State Renewable Portfolio Standards At Risk

By Stuart Kaplow on January 26, 2020 Posted in Codes and Regulations, Energy, Solar Panel

In the ongoing conflagration between “reliable power” and “clean energy” many may have missed when last month federal energy policy declared reliability the winner with renewable energy subsidies (e.g., state renewable portfolio standards) the loser. In a decision that critics have called “unprecedented” the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on December 19, 2019 issued an Order … Continue Reading

When Trees Sue for their Own Environmental Preservation

By Stuart Kaplow on January 5, 2020 Posted in Codes and Regulations, Environmental

In the new decade American environmental law will likely expand to include you being sued by the trees. I don’t mean being sued by the Lorax or someone else who “speaks for the trees” but rather the trees will have standing to sue to confront environmental degradation and the like. This movement to empower nature … Continue Reading

179D Tax Deduction Brought Back to Life thru 2020

By Stuart Kaplow on December 22, 2019 Posted in Federal, Green Building, LEED

This past Friday night while aboard Air Force One the President signed legislation reviving the 179D energy efficient commercial buildings tax deduction, providing an enormous and much needed boost to domestic green building. Almost as compelling as the fictional undead being created through reanimation of a corpse, except here there were no zombies involved; it … Continue Reading

Maryland Schools will No Longer be LEED Certified

By Stuart Kaplow on December 8, 2019 Posted in Green Building, Green Globes, LEED

In response to legislation enacted by the Maryland General Assembly in 2018, overriding a veto by the Governor, commencing last week new public school building no longer has to be LEED certified or the like. This is a major change in public policy for the Old Line State that has required by law that all … Continue Reading

2018 IgCC is Not in Use Anywhere. A Detailed Analysis of Why?

By Stuart Kaplow on December 1, 2019 Posted in Green Globes, IgCC, LEED, Local Government

The 2018 International Green Construction Code was released on November 8, 2018 but more than a year later, it has not been adopted anywhere. The 203 page document available from the ICC for sale to the public, .. click here for a free read only copy of the 2018 IgCC, is an entirely new standard … Continue Reading

Greenbuild was Proof Positive that LEED is Thriving

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

The just completed 2019 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Atlanta is absolute proof that the LEED green building rating system, with more than 100,000 projects registered and certified, is thriving. The theme of this year’s Greenbuild was “A New Living Standard,” that everyone, regardless of background or circumstance, deserves a safe and healthy place … Continue Reading

PFOA Contamination is Found in 49 States

By Stuart Kaplow on November 17, 2019 Posted in Environmental, Legal

Two weeks ago, New York Attorney General Letitia James commenced a civil suit against the nation’s largest chemical manufacturers and several firefighting foam makers for what the complaint alleges is contamination of water supplies across the state with PFOAs, averring strict liability for public nuisance, strict products liability for defective products, strict products liability for … Continue Reading

What You Can Say about RECs is Regulated by the FTC

By Stuart Kaplow on November 10, 2019 Posted in Energy, Federal, Solar Panel

Businesses who generate renewable energy, say, by using solar panels, but sell the Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) for the renewable energy they generate shouldn’t claim they “use” renewable energy. The Federal Trade Commissions has advised that such a claim would be deceptive. The guidance from the FTC is not new, but as renewable energy becomes … Continue Reading

An HREC is Not a REC in a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment

By Stuart Kaplow on November 3, 2019 Posted in Environmental, Federal

I review a large number of Phase I environmental site assessments, and year in, year out, the largest number of questions I field are about Historical Recognized Environmental Conditions. The environmental professionals who perform those assessment generally do not take heed of Eduardo Galeano’s quote, “History never really says goodbye. History says, ‘see you later.’” … Continue Reading

FTC Finds Truly Organic is Not

By Stuart Kaplow on October 27, 2019 Posted in Environmental, Federal, Green Washing

By way of a federal court order that became final last month, Truly Organic Inc. and its founder will pay $1.76 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission greenwashing complaint alleging that their nationally marketed bath and beauty products are neither “certified organic” nor “vegan” as falsely claimed. According to the FTC’s complaint, in this … Continue Reading

Government to Allow Less Lead in Drinking Water

By Stuart Kaplow on October 20, 2019 Posted in Environmental, Federal

EPA is expected to publish this week in the Federal Register the first proposed regulatory revisions to the National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for lead in more than 30 years. The United States has made tremendous progress in lowering children’s blood lead levels (.. children are a good data set analogous to the broader population). … Continue Reading

ESG Disclosure Simplification Act Passes Committee But Will Fail

By Stuart Kaplow on October 13, 2019 Posted in Environmental, Federal, Sustainability

On September 20, 2019, the Financial Services Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4329, the ESG Disclosure Simplification Act of 2019. The bill would require all public companies to disclose “environmental, social, and governance [ESG] metrics” as material information about the company. Although there is little if any chance that the bill … Continue Reading

LEED Offers Companies a Response to Declining Bird Populations

By Stuart Kaplow on October 6, 2019 Posted in Environmental, LEED

Condor in the Cordillera Huaywuash, Peru

In response to a much publicized new study on North American bird populations that appeared in the journal Science last month, we received a significant number of inquiries from businesses about what an appropriate response might be from a responsible company? The study found “cumulative loss of nearly three billion birds since 1970, across most … Continue Reading

Radon Caused More Than 21,000 Deaths Last Year

By Stuart Kaplow on September 8, 2019 Posted in Environmental, Green Building

Radon causes more than 21,000 lung cancer deaths in the U.S. every year. Despite that it is totally preventable, radon is the number one lung cancer killer in nonsmokers. Radon is widely described as the primary source of indoor and household air pollution in the U.S. High radon levels are found in every state. Levels … Continue Reading

State Law Trumps on Location of Solar Panels

By Stuart Kaplow on July 28, 2019 Posted in Energy, Environmental, Solar Panel

There will be a brief hiatus in regular blog posts during the month of August. I am in Peru walking slowly up the very big hill that is Siula Grande (.. in lieu of blog posts, read the book or watch the movie, “Touching The Void” about the first guys to summit this mountain). “Here … Continue Reading

Cannabis Manufacturer Charged with RCRA but No CDS Violations

By Stuart Kaplow on July 21, 2019 Posted in Environmental, Federal

In a criminal case that says significantly more about the prosecution than the indictment on its face, the Federal government is prosecuting a leading cannabis industry manufacturer and distributor for criminal transportation of hazardous waste. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”) was enacted in 1976 to ensure that all hazardous waste generated in the … 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

EPA Cancels Pesticide Registrations to Save the Bees

By Stuart Kaplow on June 2, 2019 Posted in Codes and Regulations, Environmental, Federal

In a rare move, the EPA issued product cancellation orders for certain pesticides effective May 20, 2019. The pesticides contain neonicotinoids that, despite their widespread use have become controversial when laboratory studies reported a link between neonicotinoids and declining bee populations, although a link has not been replicated in field studies. Neonicotinoids are compounds in … Continue Reading