Green Building Projects
Many cities and towns have found that fast-tracking or providing incentives for green building can accelerate the transition to sustainable development. These can include:
• Tax incentives, especially tax abatements for buildings meeting LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) "silver" rating or higher accreditation.
• Increased Floor-to-Area Ratios (FAR) which allow developers to construct larger buildings than typically permitted by current zoning.
• Accelerated permit and building review processing for green building projects.
Monmouth Beach, NJ, passed an ordinance in 2024 requiring contractors to contain and clean up daily all table sawing dust from manufactured plastic building materials such as TREX, PVC piping and vinyl siding.
The Town of Banff in Alberta, Canada has adopted an extensive Municipal Sustainable Building Policy. They also have a simple and clear guide for how to handle construction waste.
Superior, CO Green Building Program establishes green building standards through education, regulation, and incentives, which will promote and encourage high performing sustainable development and redevelopment within the town.
Babylon, NY Long Island Green Homes Program helps homeowners make energy efficiency improvements at no upfront cost to themselves.
Woodside, CA provides a Green Building Residential Measures Checklist to residents. Green building standards apply to new buildings, alterations and additions.
Chapel Hill, NC developed a pilot program in the Ephesus-Fordham Form District that rebates construction permitting fees for projects that employ sustainable design principles targeting energy and water use.
The EPA has a comparison chart of six Green Building Standard certification programs and ordinances.
The Colorado Green Building Guild provides an overview of local and regional green-home certification programs and highlights the leading providers of tools, resources and green building rating systems for commercial properties.
The Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy has a listing of various state and local programs for incentivizing green building. The largest, most comprehensive list is for California.
Resources
References
[1] Circo, C. J. (2008) Using mandates and Incentives to promote sustainable construction and green building projects in the private sector: call for more state land use policy initiatives. Penn State Law Review. http://www.pennstatelawreview.org/articles/112%20Penn%20St.%20L.%20Rev.%20731.pdf
[2] United States Green Building Council (N.A.) LEED and Multifamily Green Building Financing Incentives. https://www.usgbc.org/sites/default/files/2021-09/LEED%20and%20Multifamily%20Incentives%20September%202021%20Update.pdf
[3] Thomaier, S., et al. (2014). Farming in and on urban buildings: Present practice and specific novelties of Zero-Acreage Farming (ZFarming). Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 30(01), 43-54.
[4] Kibert, C. J. (2016). Sustainable Construction: Green Building design and delivery. Hoboken, NY: Wiley.