California Green Building Standards Code

[2] To achieve CALGreen Tier 2, buildings must exceed the latest edition of “Savings By Design, Healthcare Modeling Procedures” by a minimum of 15%.

[3] The provisions of this code are directed to: In US urban land area quadrupled from 1945 to 2002, increasing at about twice the rate of population growth over this period.

One study estimates that the heat island effect is responsible for 5–10% of peak electricity demand for cooling buildings in cities.

To comply, retention basin has to be sized and shown on the site plan, and water has to be filtered and routed to a public drainage system.

[13] The drainage system has to be shown on the site plan (swales, drain piping, retention areas, ground water recharge).

[17] Also outdoor water usage is regulated: the Code requires irrigation controls to be weather- or soil moisture-based and automatically adjust irrigation in response to changes in plants' needs as weather conditions change, or have rain sensors or communication systems that account for local rainfall.

[27] The targets of the Code are designers, architects, builders, property owners, and also businesses and the government that have to take into consideration the new standards when they decide to build new structures.

The first result of this cooperation was the adoption of the 2008 California Green Building Standards Code (CGBC) that became effective since August 1, 2009.

Section 4.201.1 of CALGreen 2010 clarifies instead that the CEC adopts regulations to establish the minimum level of energy efficiency a structure that is heated or cooled must meet or exceed.

Section 4.303.1 of 2010 CALGreen reduces indoor water use by at least 20% and it also provides a prescriptive and a performance method to meet the requirements.

CALGreen 2010 alleviates the environmental problems connected with residential and non-residential structures, but it doesn't solve them both because it is limited to the new buildings.

Policy targets are important stakeholders: designers, architects, builders, property owners and in general also businesses, the government and its agencies.

A part from CBSC, HCD, DSA, and OSHPD, the following agencies contribute to the formulation of the policy: Air Resource Board (for standards concerning air pollutants), California Integrated Waste Management Board (CalRecycle) (for what concerns landfill disposals), the Department of General Services, the Department of Public Health, the Department of Water Resources and the Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission).

HCD organizes annual and triennial focus group meetings among stakeholders to check the effectiveness of the policy adopted and to discuss proposed changes to the code.