California Plans To Have Green Building Standards
California is proposing statewide green building standards, the first of its kind throughout the country. These new standards would require green practices to be implemented when building new homes, schools and other commercial buildings.
The new green code would require that the materials used in buildings be more environmentally friendly. This includes recycling a large portion of the construction waste and using energy efficient materials throughout the building.
There is both praise and anger of the new green code. On the one side, some feel that there are no standards today and that providing it provides a basic standard for which buildings can be made. Many environmental groups on the other side feel that the standards may not be strict enough and fall short of the popular third-party LEED rating. Some cities within California already enforce green building standards which are much stricter than the ones proposed in this bill.
I am not a huge fan of enforcing policies like this, but I can see its value. Though it will cost businesses and consumers more upfront, the energy savings will reimburse some of those costs down the road. It should really be on consumers to stop allowing builders to use cheap materials that are substandard just so that a house can be built bigger and cheaper than they really should be.
Regardless, this is at least a step in the right direction and hopefully will improve the quality and how green our newer homes are.
I tend to agree that forcing these types of changes rarely is the right approach. With that said, since so many companies are driven primarily by profit, I can certainly see how a mandate may be the only way to get them to move away from the cheap easy materials and use green building techniques.
As an aside, we have a green fast food restaurant where I live, which tore down the old restaurant and reused some of the old materials, as well as adding some more energy efficient appliances.
While the concept is commendable, I can’t help but think that it would have been even more Green to do a face lift on the old building and replace the appliances.
So, while the restaurant is rated as one of the first green ones in the US franchise, if you take into account that they tore down a perfectly good building, I can’t help but think that it ends up being more of a marketing gimmick than actually a green store…
I think it’s great that there are these new standards for greener buildings! Like schools, that’s a fantastic idea because it will show future generations that it is important to use our energy efficiently.
Sometimes we are so spoiled because we believe that these resources are endless but truth be told, one day these resources will run out and we’ll be left with nothing. So it is important to take preventative measures right now while we can so that time won’t have to come.
Support the environment and art by supporting Emergence, a large outdoor installation at AU Museum; references icebergs, calls attention to fragile beauty of our environment: http://georgiajunegoldberg.com/museums_commissions.php
While the cause is a good one, I think it may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. California is already facing huge economic problems. By having stricter standards than other states, it slows development and hurts their economy more. Hopefully other states follow suit to even the playing field.
It would be interesting to know if transportation is factored into the green building materials requirement. Many materials are normally transported long distances to site. I suspect that this applies to green materials as well. Using them may not be as environmentally friendly as we think it ia.
I agree with this new plan of green building standards because this will surely benefit a lot of people and also our environment. The use of energy efficient materials throughout the building such as window films would be great idea. You can find out more about window film at http://www.TintBuyer.com. They inform buyers on the actual ENVIRONMENTAL and FINANCIAL benefits of window films. You will find that people can reduce consumption without any visual effect on their windows. Like most window films are for reducing solar heat gain in the summer, low-e films both block summer heat and improve winter heat retention. Window films are economical and eco-friendly, it surely pays to live “green”