Your USGBC Chapter has been doing a lot of work behind the scenes with other Virginia Chapters. The James River Green Building Council, Hampton Roads Green Building Council, USGBC-National Capital Area and USGBC Southwest Virginia Chapter united in 2009 to promote a legislative program to the 2009 General Assembly with the goal of achieving strong public policies that promote public buildings that are high performance in design, construction and operations. Highlights of the recommendations include:

• All publicly owned buildings should be designed, constructed and operated to achieve energy savings exceeding ASHRAE 90.1-2004 by at least 15% for new construction and 10% for major renovations.
• Water systems design in these buildings should result in water use savings at least 25% better than the Federal Energy Policy Act of 1992 baseline standard.
• K-12 Public Schools new construction and renovations should meet the same standards.
• Local Governments and Private Construction should have strong incentive programs, including state tax credits.

Much of this is still in progress ... and we are working hard to achieve these goals in 2010. Read more...