The Green Buildings Guide: Tools for Local Governments to Promote Site Sustainability
Organization: West Coast Environmental Law
Type: Policy
This Guide is part of the ongoing work of West Coast Environmental Law's Livable and Sustainable Communities Program. It builds on West Coast's prior work in this area, specifically Cutting Green Tape: An Action Plan for Removing Regulatory Barriers to Green Innovations, a report that was focused on legal impediments and law reform needs, and the Smart Bylaws Guide, a web-based resource that provides links to innovative smart growth practices around BC and North America.
This Guide's purpose is to increase green building uptake in BC, by providing a central resource to the suite of regulatory and policy tools currently available to BC local governments to support and promote green building design and practices. The Guide's aim is to provide targeted guidance.
The Guide is therefore neither a law reform report nor a comprehensive discussion of the many benefits of green buildings. It assumes that the reader is already familiar with the what, is convinced of the merits, and is seeking knowledge on how to move forward at the cutting edge.
The Guide is organized as follows:
- Part 1 provides an overview of the three roles that local governments can fulfill when trying to supportand promote green building design and practices: as regulators/policy makers; as building owners; and through partnership, leadership and educational initiatives. The Guide's primary emphasis is on the first listed role - as regulatory and policy makers.
- Part 2 discusses regulations and policies that can achieve "across the board" gains on green building design and practices.
- Part 3 discusses regulations and policies that target a specific area of green building design or practice, such as energy efficiency or water conservation. Tools discussed in Part 3 are designed to advance more specific objectives and are in addition to the general tools discussed under Part 2.
- Part 4 provides concluding remarks.
This Guide's purpose is to increase green building uptake in BC, by providing a central resource to the suite of regulatory and policy tools currently available to BC local governments to support and promote green building design and practices. The Guide's aim is to provide targeted guidance.
The Guide is therefore neither a law reform report nor a comprehensive discussion of the many benefits of green buildings. It assumes that the reader is already familiar with the what, is convinced of the merits, and is seeking knowledge on how to move forward at the cutting edge.
The Guide is organized as follows:
- Part 1 provides an overview of the three roles that local governments can fulfill when trying to supportand promote green building design and practices: as regulators/policy makers; as building owners; and through partnership, leadership and educational initiatives. The Guide's primary emphasis is on the first listed role - as regulatory and policy makers.
- Part 2 discusses regulations and policies that can achieve "across the board" gains on green building design and practices.
- Part 3 discusses regulations and policies that target a specific area of green building design or practice, such as energy efficiency or water conservation. Tools discussed in Part 3 are designed to advance more specific objectives and are in addition to the general tools discussed under Part 2.
- Part 4 provides concluding remarks.
Submitted by: WConnect Admin (June 09, 2009)
Last Reviewed by: WConnect Admin (June 09, 2009)
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