Center for Climate Change Law | Columbia Law School
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Green Building Law
Buildings consume almost 40% of America’s energy and around 68% of its electricity. Lowering the energy consumption of our building stock through innovative green laws, policies, and practices is a key component of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
CCCL’s work in green building law includes a 2010 book and a blog, the Green Building Law Update Service, which tracks innovations in the field of green building law.
About the Book
The book The Law of Green Buildings: Regulatory and Legal Issues in Design, Construction, Operations and Financing was co-published by the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources and the Environmental Law Institute in August 2010. It provides readers with an overview of green buildings and sustainable development. It highlights significant statutes and regulations as well as legal issues that attorneys and other building professionals should be aware of when advising clients seeking to construct, finance or lease a green building. It is available here.
The book is roughly organized into five sections. The first section provides an overview of green buildings as well as green building rating systems. The second section of the book concerns significant federal, state, and local green building laws and initiatives. The third section of the book addresses green building finance and building energy options. The fourth section of the book examines the siting of buildings as well as green construction and materials, building water use, and retrofitting. The fifth and last section of the book examines legal issues related to marketing green buildings as well as emerging legal issues in green construction. This section also addresses adapting buildings to climate change.
The book is current as of late 2009 (with some subsequent developments also reflected). Back to top
Green Building Law Update Service
To help readers keep track of this ever-changing field, CCCL maintains a blog on new legal developments in green buildings. View it here chronologically or through links to specific topics below. The blog is administered by Cullen Howe. Please feel free to email him at Cullen.Howe@aporter.com.
Follow the links below to view past blog posts categorized by scope or topic.
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For posts about LEED, click here.
For posts specifically about New York City, click here.
Links to Articles and Studies of Interest
Atop TV Sets, A Power Drain that Runs Nonstop, The New York Times June 25, 2011
Global Energy: The Latest Infatuations American Scientist, May/June 2011
When Energy Efficiency Sullies the Environment, The New York Times, March 7, 2011
NY’s “Greenest” Avoids LEED Certification, The Real Deal, Feb. 10, 2011
The Efficiency Dilemma, New Yorker, Dec. 20, 2010
Model Green Building Ordinance Proposed for Adoption by New York Municipalities, NYSBA/MLRC Municipal Lawyer, Fall 2010
Can We Build in a Brighter Shade of Green?, The New York Times, Sept. 25, 2010
Giving GSA Retrofits More Bang for the Buck, Rocky Mountain Institute, Sept. 14, 2010
Critics Say LEED Program Doesn’t Fulfill Promises, NPR, Sept. 8, 2010
Interest in Green Building Has Finally Reached a Critical Mass, Says Eames, Modern Russia, Sept. 7, 2010