Playbook for Green Buildings + Neighborhoods | Plan | Buildings | Effective Implementation of Policies and Measures

By understanding institutional barriers, you can help to shape strategies for overcoming them. These are some specific policies and measures (actions) may help to overcome barriers:

Clairity: Actions that are conceptually clear and feasible with details well thought out and stated in terms of goals or desired change achieved through implementation.
Roles: Clearly specified roles and responsibilities, along with clear directives and organizational structures that detail how the action will be implemented.
Champion: Effective leadership by a skilled and experienced champion.
Stakeholers: Support from engaged stakeholder groups and champions from within government and from external constituents including building industry professionals, non-profit organizations and the community.
Elected Officials: Continued support from elected officials. When changes occur in the administration or legislative bodies, garner support of new elected officials.
Timelines: Established and respected timelines.
Budgets: Technical and budgetary means secured for the period of time needed to implement and evaluate the action.
Visible Progress: Enhance confidence by evaluating impacts at specified intervals, and allow for adjustments as needed.

Leverage Partnerships

In most communities, local governments have forged successful partnerships with industry groups, non-profit organizations, other government agencies, and the community. Partners can help with the development and delivery of policies and actions.

For example, US Green Building Council currently has 70 chapters across the U.S., plus branches in smaller communities. Local governments can partner with these chapters to deliver education programs, thus allowing the local governments to invest more resources toward other policies and measures.

These are some of the organizations that may have local or regional chapters or representatives who would make good partners:

American Institute of Architects
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers
Building Owners & Managers Association
Enterprise Community Partners
Illuminating Engineering Society of North America
National Association of Industrial & Office Properties
National Association of Homebuilders Local Homebuilders Associations
International Interior Design Association
Local Environmental Organizations
Regional Offices of Federal Agencies
State Agencies
US Green Building Council Utilities

City of Portland, OR Green Building Policy

Portland Oregon Green building policy of funding and incentives as approved by council

State of California Sustainable Building Toolkit

Tools, resources and information on sustainable building

US Green Building Council

The United States Green Building Council is a non profit with the goal of guiding the building indus...

The City of New York's GHG inventory revealed that over 60% of the city’s government emissions were from municipal buildings and 79% of the emissions citywide were related to operation of buildings.(New York City Mayor’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability, 2007)