Today Los Angeles became the largest city in America to adopt green building standards for private building development.
It was quite an Earth Day in City Hall’s Council Chambers, a real victory for the environment and those who support green causes in the region. The new ordinance becomes law in November, and will “reduce the city’s planet-warming carbon emissions by more than 80,000 metric tons annually by 2012, the equivalent of taking 15,000 cars off the road,” according to the Los Angeles Times. The Times’ story on the new green law goes on:
"Tens of millions of square feet in city buildings will be going green. Two-thirds of everything built by 2050 will be affected by this ordinance.The ordinance would affect buildings 50,000 square feet and more, and require that they meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington-based nonprofit group.The City Council ordered staff to report back in six months to advise on whether the standards should be stiffened to include buildings of at least 25,000 square feet, and to require more environmental features, as a pending ordinance in San Francisco would do.”
PIPE and its staff were strong supporters of the City’s new ordinance from the start, maintaining strong links with environmental and community groups to make the whole thing come together. Expect more from this coalition in the future.
