Green Building Practices
Are Required by States

Green building is gaining wider acceptance as cities and states including Michigan, Washington and Arizona adopt the guidelines designed to produce buildings that are more energy efficient and environmentally sensitive.

These states and cities now require or encourage government-financed construction to follow the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, a set of building guidelines administered by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council. The federal government's General Services Administration, landlord to most federal agencies, also applies the program to its new buildings.

"The federal government and the states are the single largest landlords we have," says Rick Fedrizzi, president of the U.S. Green Building Council. He says adoption by government builders will have a "ripple effect" in supporting the market for sustainable building materials and encourage private builders to build green.

Also known as LEED, the program requires builders to follow a checklist of environmentally sensitive design and building practices. LEED buildings tend to have more natural light, use nontoxic materials and better insulation. While they can also use solar power or collect rainwater, the buildings are often not much different than standard buildings, though their upfront costs can be modestly higher.

Since LEED was launched in 2000, more than 200 buildings have been certified and 1,800 more have signed up. Guidelines are created though negotiations among interest groups, including real-estate companies, architects, environmental activists, material manufacturers and government.

In April, Washington state passed a law that requires state agencies to use LEED except in circumstances where the agency can prove a reason not to. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order requiring LEED in December. Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm signed a similar directive in April. Dozens of cities and counties require LEED certification on municipal projects, including Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. No governments require private developers to follow LEED.

Maryland fell short of adopting LEED. This spring, the state legislature passed a bill that would encourage, though not require, state buildings to follow the program. Chris Parts, an architect and leading supporter, says the legislation is "half a loaf" of what supporters originally wanted. But having something on the books would be a victory, he says. Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has yet to sign the bill.

Representatives of the timber and plastics industry generally oppose LEED, saying it discriminates against their products by not considering the total life-cycle benefits of certain materials. The American Plastics Council and the American Forest and Paper Association ended up supporting the Maryland bill when the requirement to build to LEED was dropped and a competing system considered less strict by some environmentalists, known as Green Globes, was added to the bill.

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