From the Editor

Last month, USGBC released its list of Top 10 LEED States (rated per capita). Again, the District of Columbia won by a wide margin.  

But to me, a more interesting, and probably more meaningful, top 10 list came just last week — top 10 new state laws that advance green building.

From California to Alabama to Florida to Oklahoma, from requirements that public buildings’ energy use be benchmarked to legislation that allows PACE financing, these new laws represent a wide range of impactful and important strategies.

What’s exciting about seeing this list of laws is realizing that green building legislation is no longer something only considered in states that generally vote blue. Indeed, green building in general and energy efficiency specifically are more and more being universally recognized not just as the right thing to do, but also as fiscally sound.

And what’s more, several of these new laws (including in Illinois and the District of Columbia) aim to make school buildings more energy efficient and green. The District of Columbia law raises the bar of new school buildings from LEED Silver to LEED Gold, for example. It’s hard to disagree that showing children at an early age how important green is can have a huge impact on how they continue to learn and prioritize green.

As always, I’m interested to hear from you — are there new green laws or incentive programs in your areas? What do they say and how do you think they’ll impact the rising tide of green building and energy efficiency? 

Cheers,

Greg Zimmerman, editor  

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