April 4, 2008—Virginia and South Dakota recently became the thirteenth and fourteenth states in the US, and Chamblee, GA, became the first municipality, to formally recognize the Green Building Initiative‘s (GBI) Green Globes environmental assessment and rating system in legislation.
In Virginia, House Bill 239 and its companion Senate Bill 174 will create a separate class of real estate for tax purposes, beginning July 1, 2008, for buildings that meet one of the following criteria:
- Exceed the energy efficiency standards prescribed in the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code by 30 percent;
- Meet or exceed performance standards of the GBI’s Green Globes system, the EarthCraft House program, or the US Green Building Council’s LEED program; or <liQualify as an ENERGY STAR home.
In South Dakota, Senate Bill 188 established high performance building design and construction standards for newly constructed or renovated state-owned buildings by requiring the majority of state buildings to meet or exceed the following criteria:
- A two-Globe rating using the Green Globes system;
- A LEED silver rating; or
- A comparable numeric rating under a sustainable building certification program recognized by the American National Standards Institute as an accredited standards developer.
The Chamblee City Council voted unanimously that all new construction projects of more than 20,000 square feet and all new municipal buildings, regardless of size, must be recognized by either the Green Globes or LEED system beginning April 1, 2009. The Atlanta suburb is the first in the Southeast region to require private development projects to meet green building standards.
Chamblee, South Dakota, and Virginia join Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin in formally recognizing Green Globes in green building legislation or regulation, notes GBI.
