California Green Building Standards Code
The California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen Code) is Part 11 of the California Building Standards Code and is the first statewide "green" building code in the US.
The purpose of CALGreen is to improve public health, safety and general welfare by enhancing the design and construction of buildings through the use of building concepts having a reduced negative impact or positive environmental impact and encouraging sustainable construction practices in the following categories:
To achieve CALGreen Tier 1, buildings must comply with the latest edition of "Savings By Design, Healthcare Modeling Procedures". To achieve CALGreen Tier 2, buildings must exceed the latest edition of “Savings By Design, Healthcare Modeling Procedures” by a minimum of 15%.
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. Estimated area of rural land used for residential purposes increased by 21,000,000 acres (85,000 km2) (29%) from 1997 to 2002 (2002).
Water is a precious natural resource. At least two-thirds of the United States have experienced or are bracing for local, regional, or statewide water shortages. US population, and in particular California population has constantly increased during the last decades,so using water wisely is crucial in order to provide enough water also for the future generations.
During the 20th century, water diverted south through the California Aqueduct was economically essential to Los Angeles. But fisheries, wildlife and water quality in the bay and delta paid a heavy price. Water is becoming an increasingly important resource throughout California and the United States.
The largest single use of potable water in California is water used to irrigate for agriculture. The largest remaining segment of water use is that of public water supplies.
On average, the energy use for typical buildings is assumed to consist of 67% electricity and 33% natural gas
Approximately 170 million tons of building-related C&D materials were generated in the U.S. during 2003. This is a 25% increase in generation from the 1996 estimate of 136 million tons ( which was 25% to 40% of the national solid waste stream).
The residential mandatory measures are provided in chapter 4 and the non-residential ones in chapter 5 of CALGreen Code.
About the residential mandatory measures, the Code provides measures like storm water drainage and retention systems thought to prevent flooding of adjacent properties and prevent pollution from storm water runoff by retaining soil on-site or by providing filtering to restrict sedimentation from reaching storm water drainage systems and receiving streams or rivers. 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. The new residential structure has to also comply with local storm water ordinances.
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