Description

In 2004, San Francisco amended Chapter 7 of the San Francisco Environment Code. Chapter 7 was previously limited to identifying several prescriptive measures that must be adopted by City buildings to address water conservation, energy efficiency through lighting retrofits, increased indoor air quality, and on-site recycling. The 2004 amendments, among other things, require all new municipal construction and major renovation projects to achieve LEED certification at the Silver level. This requirement applies to all city buildings 5,000 square feet or larger. Building projects less than 5,000 square feet are encouraged to achieve the highest practicable LEED score.

Chapter 7 of the Environment Code also created the Resource Efficient Building (REB) Task Force, an inter-agency advisory body to guide the development of City green building standards, to provide oversight to the implementation of these standards, and to promote communication among City departments regarding green building issues.

To help City Departments comply with the law, the City has developed a Municipal Green Building Compliance Guide.