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Encouraging Green Building Practices a Discussion Paper About Community Resilience November 2015

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Encouraging Green Building Practices a Discussion Paper About Community Resilience November 2015 Encouraging Green Building Practices A Discussion Paper about Community Resilience November 2015 Planners in local government have a Brief: The construction, operation, and number of tools available to encourage demolition of buildings and infrastructure green building practices that will reduce is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and have other positive emissions. How we build today locks us environmental impacts. Key strategies in to a future of high or low emissions include: requiring new construction to depending on the choices we make. meet LEED standards, providing financial Planners have a number of tools to incentives for green building practices, encourage practices that not only mitigate emissions but also reduce other and revising engineering and design critical environmental impacts. standards. Introduction Problem Washington is a leader in green building Washington State has set a goal of practices nationwide, and many reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) initiatives at the state and local level emissions to 50% below 1990 levels by have been undertaken to encourage 2050. If it is to meet this goal, reducing energy efficiency, use of alternative the emissions that result from electricity energies. Despite this, the state’s and heat used in buildings will be a key emissions from this sector have held factor. In Washington, roughly 40% of steady over the past several years, with GHG emissions result from building slight decreases in emissions from energy use. Additionally, GHGs heating (RCI in the Figure 1 below) being embodied in construction materials have offset by increases in emissions from the potential to make up a significant electricity usage. proportion of the State’s emissions, and efforts to reduce these emissions during the construction and demolition phases are critical to a holistic approach to green building. In addition to the GHG impacts of building, construction of homes, offices and other facilities results in an increase of impervious surfaces, contributing to increased stormwater runoff and contamination, urban heat island effect, and a number of other environmental Figure 1: Washington Electricity, Heating and impacts. Transportation Emissions, 2008-2010. Source: WA State Dept. of Ecology, 2012. Encouraging Green Building Practices - APA Washington Chapter 1 GHG emissions do not result solely during a building’s operating life, however. The types of materials used and the practices that go into making them also have a significant impact on the building’s life-cycle emissions and should not be ignored. Finally, what happens at the end of a building’s life- cycle is also important. Landfilling of demolition debris is fuel-intensive, costly, Figure 2: King County Emissions from Consumption. and contributes to the problem of Source: King County, 2012. decreasing landfill space. Many types of construction debris can be recycled into The impact of construction-related GHG new materials, avoiding the problems emissions becomes even more above as well as the emissions pronounced when focusing on emissions associated with mining and transporting from local government operations. As new construction materials. Figures 3 and 4 show, emissions embodied in purchased materials (here Finally, green stormwater infrastructure referred to as “Scope 3 – Supply Chain) such as bioswales, green roofs, street often represent the largest source of trees and pervious pavements decrease emissions for public agencies. Of these, the environmental impacts of construction emissions are the largest development and have a number of co- proportion. benefits. Reducing Emissions throughout the Project Life-Cycle Reducing Emissions from Construction Although often overlooked, emissions from construction materials and energy use can make up a significant proportion Figure 3: Supply Chain Emissions in Context. Source: Good Company for Alameda County, CA, 2015. of a community’s GHG emissions. As Figure 2 below shows, construction emissions in King County represented 8% of total consumption-related emissions. Encouraging Green Building Practices - APA Washington Chapter 2 2. Include Construction Emissions in Local Government and Community GHG Inventories a. By quantifying emissions from its own construction purchasing, a local government or agency can set targets for reduction and determine which strategies are Figure 4: Construction Emissions Compared to Other Supply best for doing so. See Example Chain Emissions. Source: Good Company for Alameda County, CA, 2015. below: SDOT b. Likewise, an inventory of A number of strategies exist to reduce emissions at the community scale emissions from construction purchasing allows a local government to in both the public and private sectors. determine where emissions These include: reductions are possible and what strategies will be effective in 1. Change Standard Specifications to reducing them. Encourage Use of Low-GHG Materials and Practices 3. Require Alternatives Evaluation a. Implement incentive specs to a. For public sector projects, carry encourage contractors to reduce out an alternatives evaluation use of GHG intensive materials, during the design phase to e.g. a specification that rewards determine how project design and contactors for each pound of material use can be altered to cement reduced in a concrete mix. reduce construction-related See Example below: SDOT emissions. b. Require contractors to complete a “Carbon Control Plan” prior to 4. Require Construction Emissions to construction. This plan would set a be Accounted for in SEPA goal for emissions reductions Checklist during the construction process and identify strategies to meet this goal. Reducing Emissions and c. Raise allowable maximum Environmental Impacts from amounts of recycled materials to Operations levels deemed acceptable by In the majority of cases, emissions from ASTM standards. energy use during building occupancy d. For public sector projects, require will make up the largest proportion of recycled materials to be used to GHGs in an individual project’s life-cycle. the maximum extent feasible. By allowing and encouraging sustainable design features, local governments can Encouraging Green Building Practices - APA Washington Chapter 3 drastically reduce the emissions from 3. Require GHG emissions reporting buildings within their jurisdictions. through SEPA. a. Applicants should be required to Buildings and their surrounding sites also report probable GHG emissions contribute to an increase of impervious over the lifetime of a project under surfaces. This means that stormwater is the air quality section of the SEPA unable to soak into the ground, checklist. The lead agency can increasing the occurrence of combined allow the use of an emissions sewer overflows and increasing the generation template, such as the contamination of surrounding one developed by King County, or waterbodies as stormwater flows through can allow applicants to present polluted streets before reaching the their own calculations using an nearest river, lake or ocean. Additionally, accepted method. impervious surfaces contribute to urban heat island effect – the phenomenon 4. Provide incentives for green where cities are hotter than surrounding building projects. rural areas due to absorption of sunlight. a. Projects that achieve objective Encouraging green stormwater standards for green building or infrastructure (GSI) and urban forestry GSI should be encouraged helps to mitigate these effects. through incentives such as density or floor/area ratio (FAR) bonuses, Strategies for encouraging green building reduced permit fees, streamlined include: permit processing, or financial grants. See Example below: 1. Design and Construct Public Priority Green Facilities to LEED Standards a. Require that all new publicly 5. Use Fee Reductions to Encourage funded facilities above a specified Green Stormwater Infrastructure size, constructed by your a. As climate change reduces jurisdiction or agency, are snowpack and spring stream flows designed and built to a third-party and raises water temperatures, verified green building standard stormwater management will such as LEED® Gold. become even more critical. Create a rate structure for stormwater 2. Regularly Audit Energy Use in management utility fees and Municipal Buildings sewerage fees (for combined a. Track and manage building sewer and stormwater systems) energy performance with EPA’s that encourages the reduction of Energy Start Portfolio Manager impervious surfaces, retention of and identify opportunities to native vegetation, and reduce energy use. implementation of GSI techniques. Encouraging Green Building Practices - APA Washington Chapter 4 6. Establish Tree and Vegetation 8. Provide financial assistance for Retention Ordinances energy efficiency. a. Establish ordinance provisions for a. Provide funding for property retaining existing trees and native owners for weatherization and vegetation and for replacing other energy efficiency measures removed trees and vegetation. for existing homes and Trees should be prioritized by businesses, with priority for low- species and size. Native income housing. vegetation should be prioritized for its habitat value and ability to 9. Promote district or neighborhood mitigate stormwater impacts. Such scale efficiencies. ordinances should be balanced a. A focus on individual buildings with the need to preserve solar without acknowledgement of the access. (See Example below: City neighborhood context does not of Lake Forest Park) constitute
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