By Skye Liu, Lafayette College
Seeing that there is not enough incentive and experience for construction companies to carry out more green building projects, government regulation is necessary to the success of regulating GHG emission from buildings. However, there has been little or no federal government regulation on nationwide building energy efficiency code in the history of United States. So far, only federal facilities and buildings have been required to meet the minimum LEED standard. (EPA, 2003). At state level, California took the lead in green building construction by implementing the first statewide mandatory green building Code named California Green Building Standard Code since August 2009. Understanding this code can be instrumental to the formulation of mandatory national green building standard.
CalGreen Code is drafted by California Building Standards Commission, and it is reevaluated and updated every three years. Before updating each version, there would be a public hearing and comment process (CAGOV, 2018). The latest version of this code is the 2016 code, developed through collaborative effort of several state departments and agencies. The code is developed with the purpose of reducing the environmental impact of building design and construction and to promote sustainable construction. It mainly focuses on five categories, “planning and design, efficiency of energy, water, material and resource, and environmental quality”. It is effective for every newly constructed building or structure, including the addition to existing buildings which is larger than 1000 sq ft or costs more than $200,000. The code sets different standards for residential and non-residential buildings. And it creates voluntary measures in addition to mandatory checklist. For residential buildings, there are two tiers of voluntary measure revised from third-party building standards that builders can choose from. (CBSC, 2016)
The enforcement of this buildings code is not undertaken by any single agency, but by different ones according to the building type. California Energy Commission will regulate the general energy efficiency standard; the local building department or Department of Housing and Community Development is responsible for verification of all residential buildings; Division of State Architect supervises construction of public elementary schools to state college; Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development monitors hospitals, clinics and nursing facilities in collaboration with Division of State Architect. Department of Water Resources, along with Department of Housing and Community Development, will regulate the greywater system(CBSC, 2016). As for national standard enforcement, we should also have multiple agencies enforcing building code according to the specific building type.
Before the new construction of any projects, the client or company needs to get the permit from respective agencies. First of all, the applicants of permit should identify which type of occupancy this new building fits into. Secondly, they shall confirm which state agency is assigned to this type of occupancy written on the code document. Thirdly, they would go to the Matrix Adoption Tables on Section 201 to find out the minimum mandatory requirement and look up Appendix A4 to A6 for voluntary measures. In the end, they are supposed to check off the measures they could meet for the project on the checklist. If there are demands for alternate construction material or methods, they need to provide additional application to be reviewed by respective enforcing agency. (CBSC, 2016)
This statewide code has some measures better than the concurrent voluntary building codes by third-party verifiers. First and foremost, it has put local site variances into consideration by allowing local amendments on building code. The city and county governments have authority to make necessary changes based on “climate, topographical or logical conditions” (CBSC, 2016) under the premise that all changes at least comply to the Health and Safety Code and Public Resources Code. Local amendments should apply when differences occur, but “the most restrictive requirement shall prevail” in regard to any conflicts (CBSC, 2016). The local amendment needs to be updated with the latest version of the code. The code also accommodates specific project needs. It allows alternate materials, design and methods of construction to be approved “on a case-by-case basis”(CBSC, 2016). These are all effective and practical ordinances that could be incorporated to national building code.
Compared to the previous versions of CalGreen Code, the 2016 Code sets a higher standard for construction and demolition waste. It puts more focus on water efficiency in residential buildings by set more specific measures, such as maximum flush volume for all water closets, and other measures for urinals, showerhead, etc. Additionally, it sets requirement for EV spaces in accordance with the newly emerged electrical vehicles in the state. (CBSC, 2016)
The national green building code can be formulated with reference to CalGreen Code because of its successful implementation in the past ten years. The permit application process can be used without alteration at the national level, but all other aspects need modification. In replacement of California Building Standards Commission, at the national level, the Environmental Protection Agency is the best agency to lead the work. The EPA’s past work on green building promotion focuses solely on education and advising. They have organized voluntary energy-saving building competition and developed several energy performance design guidance for local government i.e. ENERGY STAR Integrated Energy Design Guidance (EPA, 2011), which demonstrates its knowledge and expertise in green building construction and ability to develop building codes at the national level.
The frequently updated CALGreen demonstrates the importance of incorporating consideration of the impact of the ever-changing technology into green building codes. In order to comprehend the most present contributor to building’s GHG emission, an interagency panel should be established with reference to the IPCC. This panel will include personnel from the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the General Services Administration and several green building non-profit organizations like USGBC and PHIUS. This panel would write scientific reports on the most current and prevalent sources of energy consumption in green building construction and operation. Also, it should assess the effectiveness of several commonly used building codes i.e. IgCC, LEED Silver, ICC 700 and recommend the most effective building code to implement at the national level to the EPA. In addition, it must cooperate with local agencies to investigate the impact of diversified local site conditions on the effectiveness of code, therefore providing supporting evaluations for local building code amendments.