CalGreen is what they're calling the green building code just unanimously adopted by the California Building Standards Commission. The standard, which would require that half of construction waste be recycled, water-saving plumbing be installed, and other such green things be implemented in future construction, were actually opposed by some groups, including Sierra Club and the people behind the LEED rating system. At issue was CalGreen's relative weakness compared to already existing green building standards in cities like San Francisco and L.A., but also — according to the LEED folks — the difficulty of enforcing or evaluating implementations of CalGreen. Local officials don't have the kind of "technical expertise," they say, that LEED-accredited people do. (Plus, they presumably won't feel the need to pay for those LEED tests.) In any case, the move will allow cities to maintain their own, stricter standards, meaning only that the bar's been raised statewide for places that didn't have green building rules to begin with.
· State adopts greenest building codes in U.S. [SFGate]
· Environmental groups try to block parts of California's green building code [LAT]
[Image via Flickr/mirnanda]
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