Editorial: Whose definition of green?

When is green not green enough? Well, a better way to frame the question might be, “How green is your building code?” And the answer, depending on who you talk to in California, could very well depend on how you define “green.”

On the eve of a long-awaited vote by the California Air Resources Board to approve the nation’s first-ever green building code, a half-dozen environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, have announced their opposition to what many regard as one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signal achievements.

No one disputes that the new code, which would slash water use by 20 percent and divert 50 percent of all construction waste away from landfills by mandating recycling, is a marked improvement over the old one. What the opponents object to is that the ostensibly green code doesn’t go far enough in producing truly green results.

The solution, they say, is to fully embrace the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization that has led the way in green construction in California and throughout the country. Its LEED standards include basic, silver, gold and platinum levels for innovation in green building design and have already been adopted by the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

In fact, Gov. Schwarzenegger issued a 2004 order calling on all new buildings in the Golden State to achieve at least a silver LEED standard. But CARB has created a two-tiered labeling system that falls somewhat short of the overly ambitious and stringent LEED requirements, a supposed deficiency that has the green lobby seeing red. For its part, the governor’s office is blaming the Green Building Council, whose membership of architects, engineers and construction companies appears to have been under the impression that its LEED standards were the only game in the state and, according to a spokesman, isn’t keen on the idea of having any competition.

We think this is a classic example of the perfect being the enemy of the good, a condition that has become all too common in California, where the best of intentions frequently add up to bad public policy. That’s why it’s time for CARB to adopt the green building code as presented and leave the environmentalists and the self-dealing green builders to thrash around for some other well-meaning cause to sabotage at the last minute.

Green is, after all, as green does.

THE ISSUE:

When is green green enough?

WE SAY:

The state should adopt the so-called green building code.