The Legislature continues to struggle with the desire to impose green building rules on state agencies, including the CSU. Two bills that have been introduced this session have been tinkered with and changed but unfortunately the end result may be that the authority is given to a private entity, which some argue is undemocratic.

Both AB 35 (Ruskin) and AB 888 (Lieu) grant authority to the United States Green Building Council, a private entity, to establish building standards known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED); and not the California Building Standards Commission (CBSC) and ongoing efforts with their Green Building Code Advisory Committee within the CBSC to establish such standards.

In fact, according the Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters, this path could be considered a “two-pronged assault on the democratic process that not only bypasses the usual procedure for making new law, but also transfers the regulations authorized by the new law to a private organization that’s completely unaccountable to the public.”

The CSU has a longstanding record of exemplary stewardship with sustainable building standards. Our CSU Program for Environmental Responsibility (CSU-PER) was created to develop specific guidelines to integrate sustainable building practices into our capital program. CSU-PER is a comprehensive program that encourages and monitors responsible decisions and actions during integrated planning, design, construction and operation of our state and non-state capital projects.

The CSU has proposed amendments to AB 35 to recognize our proactive energy program and to focus available funds on the energy conservation aspect of sustainable building design. We have recommended that any legislation that attempts to adopt LEED should contain broader, more democratic language to include “or equivalent” rating systems such as CSU-PER. We believe that the concept and principles adopted by LEED have merit; but unlike LEED, CSU prioritizes energy efficiency and conservation in a university setting. The CSU continues to oppose both measures until they are amended to reflect our equivalent standards. At the time of this writing, AB 35 and AB 888 had moved through the legislative process and are on their way to the Governor’s office for consideration.

Side note: As the CSU faces greater challenges to achieve the greenhouse gas emission reduction goals set forth in AB 32 Global Warming measure passed last year, the CSU is likely to be the first organization in the state, public or private, to certify our “carbon footprint” with the California Climate Action Registry with baseline data from 1990. As of this date, no other company or institution in California has been able to provide historical data that meets the AB 32 certification standards. This is an accomplishment in which we can take great pride.