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<br />5C <br />Page 22 <br /> <br />Green Buildings <br />Why is this important? <br /> <br />Buildings dictate or influence everyday human behavior, and they have broad impacts on the <br />environment, the economy, and human health and productivity. ""Green building" is the practice <br />of decreasing a building's demand for energy, water, and other materials and reducing a <br />building's negative impacts on human health and on the local environment. It is an increasingly <br />mainstream approach to construction and development. In California and most of the country, <br />the amount of greenhouse gas emissions directly related to the construction and operation of <br />buildings is second only to emissions from transportation, and the location of buildings has a <br />strong impact on transportation behavior. According to the U.S. Green Building Council, <br />buildings annually consume more than 30% of the total energy and 60% of the electricity used in <br />the United States. Since the built environment usually changes very slowly over time, building <br />decisions made now will have ramifications far into the future. While new green buildings can <br />have an accumulating, long~term impact, the green retrofit of existing buildings can have an <br />immediate, short~term impact. Existing buildings will make up the majority of the building <br />stock for some time to come, so a comprehensive so"ategy to reduce the overall environmental <br />impact of buildings must address them. <br /> <br />Redwood City does not currently have a coordinated effort to encourage green building, bur is <br />actively developing a green building program that should be in effect by 2009. Future indicator <br />reports can track the number of buildings - both new green buildings and green retrofits of <br />existing buildings - involved in the program each year. <br /> <br />Defining Sustainability <br /> <br />Sustainable buildings are resource efficient, non~toxic, designed to encourage sustainable <br />behavior in building users, and sited in a way that preserves local environmental quality. <br /> <br />Indicator Results <br /> <br />Number of LEED-Certified Buildings <br /> <br />LEED (Leadership in Environmental and Energy~Efficient Design) is a green building rating <br />system developed by the non~profit u.s. Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED is the most <br />widely~used green building rating system in the country, and the number of LEED~certified <br />buildings in the United States has increased exponentially since the first LEED rating system <br />was released in 1998. USGBC has developed specialized LEED rating systems for various kinds <br />of development, including new construction, neighborhoods, existing buildings, commercial <br />interiors, and many others. As of August 2008, Redwood City had: <br />. One LEED~certified commercial building (the Rudolph and Sletten Corporate <br />Headquarters commercial building). <br /> <br />Redwood City <br />Page 12 <br /> <br />Sustainabiliry Indicator Analysis <br />