Update: For a rundown of green building provisions in the stimulus pacakge, see this post. I am wrapping up my "Green in the Stimulus" presentation for tomorrow and wanted to provide more information that may benefit your company as you seek out green stimulus projects. As you prepare to bid federal and state projects, relationships … Continue Reading
Update: For a rundown of green building provisions in the stimulus pacakge, see this post. Yesterday, while preparing for my "Green in the Stimulus" talk, I came across something both hilarious and frightening. StimulusWatch.org has provided an inventory of proposed projects that could benefit from the stimulus. The list was prepared from a list of … Continue Reading
Update: For a rundown of green building provisions in the stimulus pacakge, see this post. On February 17, CNN ran the above headline after President Obama signed the stimulus bill. To me, a more perfect headline could not have been written. Ever since I read about the stimulus bill, one particular nuance has interested … Continue Reading
Update: For a rundown of green building provisions in the stimulus pacakge, see this post. Love it or hate it, the stimulus package was signed into law yesterday. In the coming months and years, $787 billion is going to be used to support new projects, developments and tax cuts throughout the country. Set aside … Continue Reading
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
Last week, we talked about the William & Mary Environmental Law Review Symposium "It Ain’t Easy Building Green." Today, I am going to try yet another new blog trick and make my slideshow available from the Symposium. If you have any questions or would like to discuss any of the slides in detail, just post … 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
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 unveiled a previous version of the green building program nearly one year ago at the USGBC’s Greenbuild event in Chicago. The reception in Portland … 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
As part of our review of the economic downturn’s effect on green building, on Monday we looked at private projects that have cut LEED certification due to associated costs. Today, we move from private projects to public projects. Despite this shift, the theme is the same: the economic downturn will result in less public projects … 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
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
Today we are wrapping up our discussion of Shaw Development v. Southern Builders, one of the first examples of major green building litigation. On Monday we discussed the basic facts of the case; on Wednesday we looked at the contractual green building requirements between the two parties; and on Friday we looked at Shaw Development’s … Continue Reading
Way back on August 13, GBLU’s inaugural post focused on the impending green building litigation and factors that would cause the litigation. One of the factors that was described focused on parties’ financial expectations: “Parties undertaking green building projects for purely financial reasons will expect to make a profit.” In order to make a profit … Continue Reading
Last week, we discussed the Virginia General Assembly’s attempts to pass green building legislation in 2008. Virginia Governor Tim Kaine was also forced to weigh in on his preferred green building rating system in 2008. Previously, in 2007, Governor Kaine indicated his preference for the LEED rating system in Executive Order 48: “All agencies and … Continue Reading
