Item C: Resolution Adopting Sustainable Buildings Policy

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integrated design and commissioning be considered as “best practices” applicable to City building activities. The City also provides some financial support for projects developed and owned by nonprofit and private entities. The proposed Sustainable Building Policy does not address these projects given the many differences among the types of projects, level of City involvement, and currently available green building standards. In order to meet the City’s interests in supporting sustainable development practices, development of policies for these projects need closer examination. Sustainable development has been included as a selection criterion in recent Requests for Proposals related to affordable housing and downtown development. In the area of affordable housing, staff is exploring options for further incorporating green building measures into these programs. Another consideration is whether the Sustainable Buildings Policy should make any distinction between new construction—including major renovations—versus the ongoing operation and maintenance of existing buildings. New construction or major renovation projects have an opportunity to include a wide range of sustainable building elements from the beginning of a project. By contrast, sustainability for an existing building often focuses on improving ongoing maintenance and operating practices, and upgrades to equipment and systems, rather than large-scale structural changes. Because of this difference in focus, many jurisdictions adopt sustainable building policies dealing only with construction, and not ongoing maintenance. The City of Eugene believes that both new construction and ongoing building operations are important, especially as the majority of a building’s environmental impact occurs during its active use over the life of the building. With approximately 125 buildings in the City’s inventory, the approach is to adopt sustainable practices as standard operating procedure applicable to all existing City buildings rather than focusing on individual buildings. The assumption is that the total benefits will be greater by improving the way services are provided to the entire building inventory, rather than addressing a single building at a time. What’s the Standard? TM It is recommended that the City adopt the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System as the verifiable standard for measuring the implementation of sustainable building practices. Created by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED is a voluntary, consen- sus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. Members of the USGBC representing all segments of the building industry developed LEED and continue to contribute to its evolution. The City of Eugene has been an active member of the USGBC since 2000. LEED is an independent, third-party certification system created to: define "green building" by establishing a common standard of measurement $ promote integrated, whole-building design practices $ recognize environmental leadership in the building industry $ stimulate green competition $ raise consumer awareness of green building benefits $ transform the building market $ LEED provides a complete framework for assessing building performance and meeting sustainability goals. Based on well-founded scientific standards, LEED emphasizes state of the art strategies for sus- tainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. The USGBC has developed a suite of rating systems, each addressing a different type of building construction and maintenance, including new construction, commercial core and shell construction, tenant infill of an existing shell and the operation of existing buildings. 2