by Brianna Crandall — February 11, 2013—A new report from the U.S. Green Building Council provides a high-level summary of green building policy activity by state policymakers in 2012. The report’s author, USGBC’s Director of Technical Policy Jeremy Sigmon, also pulled together a Top 10 list to highlight state policies that are doing the most to propel green building forward.
The full report, Advancing Green Building Policy in the States—State Activity Report: 2012, includes legislation, regulation and other activities that were considered and/or adopted in all 50 states, and counts more than 75 unique victories that USGBC says help to grow the green building marketplace. Of the more than 400 bills that USGBC tracked last year, at least 88 issue-advancing policies were adopted since the August 2011 release of the 2011 state activity report; these are included in the 2012 report.
Sigmon’s article on the USGBC Web site highlights 10 of the new state laws that have been enacted since August 2011 to advance green building. Among them are: Connecticut SB 501, which requires the newly established Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority to develop the nation’s first statewide program for commercial properties to tap Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing; Washington, DC’s Act #19-0336, which expands the requirements of the 2006 Green Building Act and raises the bar for newly constructed DC public schools from LEED Silver to LEED Gold; and Florida HB 7117, which requires energy use in public buildings to be benchmarked to ensure that the state has the information it needs to invest in energy efficiency opportunities in public facilities.
