California’s Green Building Codes: Tahoe or Prius?

 

Photocredit: labadieautoGood news!

As of Thursday, we have Green Building Codes in California — on a voluntary basis till 2010, when they become mandatory.

The two step-process to mandatory green building codes probably looks like a politically necessity today. Many would say that we should be happy to have any green building codes at all.  Plus California still maintains its image as a leader in sustainability.

But could the attachment to our shiny green image cause us to shy away from policy that addresses the public’s best interest in energy security and climate change?

Too much more brinksmanship and California’s green building codes risk being called a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, voted “the green car of the year” and “the most fuel efficient car in its class”**.  The codes might look good when compared to other “SUV”-codes around the US, as long as you accept SUV’s as a benchmark. But we fool ourselves if we keep quietly ignoring the Prius’s out there:  Germany and Japan have been proving for years that construction of buildings with much lower energy usage is a feasible, achievable goal. And they’ve got the numbers to prove it.

Of course, I could be wrong. By 2010, we could be so far down the road to better resource use and energy independence that we will look upon the passage of these voluntary codes as being a milestone moment of courage.

And if that’s how things shape up, then I don’t mind being wrong at all.