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City of Fort Collins Green Building Road Map |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Feb 13 2008 at 1:12 PM |
by Dana Leavitt, City of Fort Collins Green Building Program Manager
All indications are positive: community stakeholders, City of Fort Collins staff, and survey results gathered from select cities around the United States suggest that Fort Collins has strong green building programs, even exceptional in some cases. This existing green building foundation is the basis for enhancements and improvements to make green building a cornerstone of construction and renovation in the community.
The City is striving to become a coordinated center for advancing green building in the Fort Collins community by increasing general awareness, raising the bar for what is required, helping engaged stakeholders deliver high performance green buildings, and rewarding high performers. The City also understands the importance of integrating green building programs with what is happening in neighboring communities for a seamless green built environment in northern Colorado.
On the basis of stakeholder input received during project interviews combined with direction from City staff, two distinct definitions of green building emerged. The first definition applies as a brief and simple definition for public outreach, while the second provides a detailed working definition useful to City staff and green building professionals:
Outreach: Green building: better buildings for people, prosperity, and the planet.
Detailed: Green buildings are designed, constructed, and operated to provide maximum benefit to people, prosperity and our planet. Green buildings demonstrate a reduced carbon footprint, energy efficiency, water conservation, waste minimization, resource-efficient materials, pollution prevention, and improved indoor air quality to conserve natural resources and improve environmental quality – both indoors and out. Green building practices extend these concepts to the entire built environment for the life cycle of new and existing buildings, their surrounding sites, and transit interconnections.
These two definitions serve to reach out to the community while offering more substance to those involved on a daily basis in green building in Fort Collins.
The Green Building Road Map will direct the City’s existing successful green building programs from a collection of independent services supported by various City departments to a coordinated program. The roadmap defines a green building vision for the City and provides specific recommendations for improvements, resulting in a path towards a dynamic and coordinated green building plan.
The community vision for green building in Fort Collins is a dynamic and coordinated green building environment that builds upon existing programs and services. Looking ahead three years, the community vision for green building in Fort Collins may appear like this:
- Specific neighborhoods stand out as shining examples of urban renewal− green from the ground up− while others show how to redevelop existing buildings around green principles.
- The built environment experiences a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, building owners enjoy lower utility bills, and occupants have improved health.
- The community is investing locally in distributed renewable energy installed on green buildings.
- The majority of building permit applicants are voluntarily adopting principles of green building.
- There are visibly more solar-powered homes and businesses, including low-income housing and a mix of leading edge, zero-energy homes and buildings.
- There is an increased awareness and action around higher density land-use patterns and smaller square footage for occupancy – quality over quantity.
- Consumers have a better understanding of the ecological impacts of their building choices.
- From K-12 through higher education, there is a system for teaching the principles of green building and there are career paths for professionals to work in this field.
- The community attracts and retains jobs in green building. Fort Collins is seen as a model city for green building attracting businesses and tourists.
The recommendations are specific actions that can be undertaken now and in the future to sustain green building in Fort Collins. These specific actions are categorized according to the following four general actions:
1. Mandate minimum performance and remove barriers
2. Encourage green building innovation
3. Reward green building success
4. Build internal City capacity to support green building
The accompanying table summarizes the recommendations in these categories according to timeframe (short-term, mid-term, or ongoing).
What can you expect during 2008? The Green Building Program has been established within the Utilities Department. It is being led by the program manager - Dana Leavitt. A Green Building Team composed of City Staff has been created to implement the short- and medium-term recommendations. In addition to coordinating existing programs and services, the team’s responsibilities will include building awareness and support for green building in the community, both internally and externally.
Research efforts will focus on identifying elements of the building and land use code that act as barriers to green building. Proposed changes to these codes should occur this year.