Buildings

Austin, United States of America

Austin's green building program facilitates the construction of sustainable buildings

Download Austin: Green building program PDF

What is it?

Austin Energy's Green Building Program is a market transformation program that provides technical support to homeowners, architects, designers and builders in the design and construction of the most sustainable homes and buildings possible.

Using sustainability/green building rating tools specifically developed for Austin, along with the LEED and Green Globes national rating tools, Green Building's staff assist design teams in establishing green building or sustainability goals for the construction of a building, review plans and specifications, make recommendations for improvements, and rate the final product on its impact to the environment and community.

How does it work?

The Green Building Program works primarily with leaders in the building industry to raise the standards for building energy efficiency, efficient use of water and water quality, indoor environmental quality, efficient use of material resources including planning for construction debris and waste reuse and recycling, and community issues. Green Building is also responsible for bringing new energy codes forward for adoption by the City of Austin.

The Green Building Program is made up of 4 different programs – Residential Green Building Program (for homeowners and building professionals); Commercial Green Building Program (for architects, builders, etc); Multi-Family Green Building Program (for owners, building professionals and residents); and, “Manage It Green”, a consulting firm for utilities and government agencies.

Key results

• more than 7000 single family homes and 60 commercial building rated (total 3 million square feet of space)
• 57 multi-family projects containing 8381 units rated
• Reduced energy consumption by 142,427 MWh
• Reduced demand on utility generators by 82.8 MW
• Power plant emissions reduced by 90,831 tCO2 (based on current fuel mix)
• Reductions of 87.6 tons NOx and 17.4 tons SOx

Next steps

By 2015 all new homes constructed in Austin shall be Zero Energy Capable Homes (65% more efficient than homes built to current code) and all non-residential buildings shall be 75% more energy efficient than current city code.

Application

A program similar to Austin's Green Building can be put in place by any municipality and would be extremely effective in cities that own a municipal electric utility or can establish a collaborative relationship with an investor owned utility.