- Green building standards apply to public buildings and to privately-owned commercial buildings of 50,000 square feet or more. The new standards will be phased in over a five-year period.
- All new construction and substantial improvements of non-residential projects owned by the District must achieve LEED certification at the Silver level. New construction projects of 10,000 square feet or greater must achieve 75 points as determined by the ENERGY STAR Target Finder Tool.
- Public Schools must achieve LEED for Schools certification.
- Public housing projects with 10,000 square feet of gross floor area or greater are required to fulfill or exceed the Green Communities standard, or another equivalent standard.
- Starting January 1, 2009, all new construction or major renovations to non-residential, private buildings of 50,000 square feet or more must submit a green building checklist and after January 1, 2012 must achieve LEED certification.
Public & private sector green building requirements.
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Over the next 30 years, the building stock is projected to grow to nearly 400 billion square feet. About 75% of the buildings will either be built or renovated in that period. (Nelson, 2004)
