by Shane Henson — December 12, 2011—The WorldGBC, a coalition of national Green Building Councils, in partnership with ICLEI-International and UN-HABITAT, recently announced the winners of the inaugural WorldGBC Government Leadership Awards for Excellence in City Policy for Green Building.
According to WorldGBC, in addition to rewarding leadership, these awards are intended to inspire other governments at all levels, share and replicate best practices in green building policy, and underscore green buildings as a winning strategy to reduce carbon emissions.
Two American cities, New York and San Francisco, won first place awards.
San Francisco was honored with the Best Green Building Policy award for the San Francisco Green Building Ordinance, which requires all new commercial, residential and municipal construction to be built to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building program, and for existing buildings to publicly disclose energy labels and undergo periodic energy audits and mandatory water efficiency retrofits at the time of sale. The impacts of building labeling and auditing alone are expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 105,000 tons and have a 10-year net present value of approximately $1 billion. The city has also created financing options to assist the private sector in meeting its efficiency targets.
New York City won the Industry Transformation Award for its Greener, Greater Buildings Plan (GGBP). The plan is a component of the broader PlaNYC sustainability plan that aims to reduce citywide carbon dioxide emissions by 30% by 2030. GGBP requires large, existing commercial buildings to publicly display annual energy and water benchmarks, audit and retro-commission every ten years, undergo cost-effective lighting and efficiency upgrades, and install meters and sub-meters in large tenant spaces. The plan is expected to reduce approximately 2.72 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, have a net savings of $7 billion by 2030, and create roughly 17,800 construction-related jobs over ten years.
“New York and San Francisco are strong models for green building policy. The United States continues to be at the forefront of the green building movement thanks in part to these shining examples of leadership,” commented said Rick Fedrizzi, president of the United States Green Building Council.
Other award recipients include Mexico City, Mexico; Birmingham, U.K.; Singapore; and Tokyo, Japan.
More than 80 green building councils across the globe, along with ICLEI and UN-HABITAT network members, were given the opportunity to nominate local government policies from their countries for the award.
