State Law requiring "green construction"

41. House Bill 7432 (Public Act 07-242), An Act Concerning Electricity and Energy Efficiency.

Sections 10, 11 — Green Buildings-Public Sector, Funding for School Construction - The Act broadens and increases the state's “green building” requirements. Under current law, state facilities costing $ 5 million or more, funded on or after January 1, 2007 (with limited exceptions for structures such as garages), must meet specified energy and environmental standards. The standards are a silver rating under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program or its equivalent. The OPM secretary, in consultation with the public works commissioner and the Institute for Sustainable Energy, must waive the requirements if he finds that the cost of compliance significantly outweighs the benefits.

Starting January 1, 2008, the Act modifies the requirements by eliminating the exceptions and limiting the current requirements to those state facilities where at least $ 2 million of the funding comes from the state. The Act also extends the requirements to the following types of projects with at least $2 million or more in state funding: (1) renovations to state facilities approved and funded on or after January 1, 2008 that cost $2 million or more, (2) new school construction projects authorized by the legislature on or after January 1, 2009 that cost $5 million or more, and (3) school renovation projects authorized by the legislature on or after this date costing at least $2 million. In all cases, the Act requires the institute, rather than the OPM secretary, to determine whether the cost of compliance significantly outweighs the benefits. The Act also requires all of these facilities to exceed the current building code energy efficiency standards (the 2004 edition of ASHRAE Standard 90. 1) by at least 20%. (See also Section 508 of sSB 1406.)

Effective: October 1, 2007 for the increase in school construction grants, and January 1, 2008 for the remaining provisions