Now is an important time to encourage your local and state officials to adopt green building standards that reduce the energy consumption of all new construction. According to the US Green Building Council, buildings in the US are the source of 39% of our carbon dioxide emissions, almost all of which comes from heating, cooling, and electrical power use. Compared to standard construction, green buildings are designed and built with resource efficiency, energy reduction and human health in mind. Typical technologies include using design to maximize the sun's light and heat, reducing cooling loads by strategic shade and better lighting options, and cutting water and energy use through lower flow technologies.

When all of the elements are assembled into a green building (also called a high performance building), it uses 20 to 50% less energy, potentially reducing CO2 emissions by 40%. Full adoption of green building technology in the US could reduce our overall CO2 load by more than 15%. That's a big bite of the global warming emissions pie. For more information about things that you can do to make buildings more climate friendly, keep reading.

What you can do now:

  • Write to your local city council and ask them to adopt a green building ordinance that requires new public buildings to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified or adhere to other efficiency measures.
  • Write to your local city council and ask them to adopt a permitting process that favors private construction that adheres to LEED or other similar high efficiency measures.
  • Write to your state's building commissioner or your local legislators and ask them to increase the efficiency requirements for new buildings in the state. This should include residential and commercial buildings. Click here to find out who is in charge of building efficiency in your state. California's title 24 efficiency requirements, along with appliance efficiency standards, have saved $56 billion since adoption in 1978 and are expected to save an addition $23 billion by 2013.
  • Tell your leaders that green buildings create jobs by stimulating new clean technologies and new architecture and engineering approaches to building design and construction.
  • Tell your leaders that the highest costs of operating most businesses are related to training and retaining employees. Green buildings have been shown to increase employee productivity and health, cutting costs and raising profits.
  • Tell your leaders that setting green building policies should be a priority. The result will be an America that is more productive, innovative, and competitive even as we reduce our impact on climate change.
  • Support leaders who are making an effort by sending them encouraging letters and emails, and calling their offices.

The resources exist to help make it easy for your leaders to adopt ordinances or policies that require new public buildings to be higher efficiency. You can point them to the US Green Building Council, which has developed the national benchmark for green buildings, a program called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. LEED standards are already available for new buildings, commercial interiors, existing buildings and homes. Standards are being developed for neighborhood developments, schools, healthcare, labs, retail, and even concert venues. Some municipalities and states have already specified that new public buildings must meet LEED standards, but the ultimate goal should be for all new buildings to meet high performance standards for energy and efficiency.

In addition to affecting local ordinances, which are limited in their scope, you can also influence state building regulations. Each state adopts various codes and standards for buildings and the process for changes varies by state. Building codes are designed to ensure that builders meet minimum standards for "public health, safety and general welfare". The first code makers were simply trying to get a handle on the local environment: sanitation and fire. Now, the codes include electrical systems, plumbing, and many other requirements such as stairs for fire exits. These features are uniformly available because the building codes require it. States can also adopt codes and standards that are based on efficiency. The International Energy Conservation Code is one such example.

Great urban fires like London and Chicago taught city lawmakers that if enough buildings give no thought to fire, then it doesn't matter what other buildings did. If you were going to pack a lot of people into a lot of buildings in a small space, it served the common good to ensure that each was built with fire in mind. Climate change is the fire this time. And while the problem may seem more complex than thatch roofing, cities and their buildings are culpable just the same. Inefficient buildings organized in inefficient ways lead to massive carbon emissions from both the buildings and people trying to move around. Green buildings organized in a way that facilitates walking and good transit can revitalize neighborhoods and entire cities, and contribute enormously to long-term solutions for the climate crisis.

There are also short term rewards in adopting green building standards. High performance buildings conserve water, improve human health, and cost less to maintain and operate. Architectural pioneer William McDonough reports that productivity increases from 4 to 16% in buildings built by his firm. "A one percent increase in productivity can pay for green features," he told the Urban Land Institute. "A 10% increase in productivity can pay for the building."

Green buildings are sustainable economic engines. They may cost nothing up front due to the whole systems thinking that saves money on one feature (like heating/cooling systems) when spending a little more on another feature (lighting). Some green buildings may cost a little more than a conventional building, but in a Minnesota study, 13 of the 16 high performance buildings examined made up the cost difference within 3 years. Money saved on energy stayed in state instead of going to import fossil fuels, further strengthening the local economy and catalyzing development in a more sustainable direction. In Chicago, emphasis on green building is fueling a new building boom and urban revival.