NEWSOM LAUNCHES STRICTER CONTROL OF CARBON EMISSIONS - New building construction and renovation of existing buildings - Commerical and residential
12 December 2007BY PAT MURPHY
Sentinel Editor & Publisher
Copyright © 2007 San Francisco Sentinel
San Francisco will tighten control of carbon emissions under legislation proposed today by Mayor Gavin Newsom, requiring stricter regulation of new building construction and renovation of existing buildings.
New commerical buildings, residential buildings more than 75 feet in height, and renovation of structures with more than 25,000 square feet will be affected by the ordiance, Newsom detailed in a morning press conference at the 555 Market Street highrise construction site.
Buildings — highrises and homes — cause half the problem of global warming, the mayor pointed out.
“It is estimated nationally that about one-third of all of the CO2 footprint in the United States comes from the operation and construction of buildings,” Newsom related within the Tishman Speyer construction area.
“In cities that percentage is much higher.
“Some cities, like Chicago, it’s in excess of 60%
“In most big cities its about 50%.
“We internally have a number set at 49% here in the City and County of San Francisco.
MANY SURPRISED HALF OF GLOBAL WARMING COMES FROM BUILDINGS
“So half of your CO2 emissions do not come from the sources that most people would otherwise expect.
“They come from the construction, and the operation, and the demolition of buildings like these.
“So if you’re going to get serious about the environment, get serious CO2 emissions, you’ve got to get serious the operation of these buildings and the construction and the design elements.
“That’s why San Francisco 2004 established one of the first requirements for all our municipal construction that would elevate that construction to LEED certified standards.
STRICTER REGULATION MOVES TO PRIVATE SECTOR
“That was in all municipal buildings. Which was great. And it has worked.
“So when you see a new library being constructed, it is with LEED Silver Standards.
“When you see the new Academy of Science, we actually went further — it’s LEED Platinum.
“But you have all these buildings go up in San Francisco and they don’t have similar requirements.”
INCENTIVIED STRATEGY BY FAST-TRACKING PERMIT ISSUANCE
“In an effort to incentivize that same strategy, a couple of years ago we actually said to developers like Tishman Speyers, ‘Look, we’ll make you a deal. If you do the right thing, from our perspective the right thing with the environment, we’ll try to fast-track your permits through the Department of Building Inspection (DBI).’
“And actually created a new line at DBI so that folks can get their permits much sooner.
STRATEGY WORKED
“The value of money is such that a lot of these developers have taken advantage of that.
“Eight large buildings have taken advantage of that.
“Six are now in queue.
“That program has worked quite well and you’ve seen similar programs across the rest of the country.
NEXT PHASE
“Now it’s time for the next phase.
“We said, ‘While that’s great, 14 or so buildings in the queue, we’ve got about 3 million square feet of new development that we’re projecting on an annual basis in the next few years.
“Eight hundred-plus thousand commerical office, about 1.2 million square feet of highrise, residential space, and about a million square feet of other residential construction.
“How can we capture that, so that we’re now just dealing with a percentage of that construction with the highest level of green building standards?
GREEN BUILDING TASK FORCE
“That’s really the mandate that brought this Green Building Task Force together in March of last year.
“They came together for a number months to put forth recommendations that now we have organized into a legislative forum.
PHASE IN
Beginning in 2008, through GreenPoint and LEED certification, all new construction in San Francisco would be required to follow these green standards.
“Phased in of 2008 to 2008 is LEED Gold Certification.
“Highrises would meet a certain criteria. Low-rises and commerical residential something different.
“But you start with a high bar relative to any city in the United States and that bar would increase each and every year.
“The phased-in approach is respectful to the realities of the market but at the same time consistent with the values of our City.”
See Related: GLOBAL WARMING
See Related: WORLD POLITICS
See Related: ALLIANCE FOR CLIMATE PROTECTION
See Related: SAN FRANCISCO ENVIRONMENT
See Related: PG&E CLIMATE SMART
PAT MURPHY
Sentinel Editor & Publisher
In his youth, Pat Murphy worked as a General Assignment reporter for the Richmond Independent, the Berkeley Daily Gazette, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He served as Managing Editor of the St. Albans (Vermont) Daily Messenger at age 21. Murphy also launched ValPak couponing in San Francisco, as the company’s first San Francisco franchise owner. He walked the bricks, developing ad strategy for a broad range of restaurants and merchants. Pat knows what works and what doesn’t work. His writing skill has been employed by marketing agencies, including Don Solem & Associates. He has covered San Francisco governance for the past ten years. Pat scribes an offbeat view of the human family through Believe It or What. Email Pat Murphy at SanFranciscoSentinel@yahoo.com.
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