"Green building practices are sensible," says county planner Lorna Thomson."They're easy to learn." Green buildings, Thomson says, conserve energy, use as little water and other resources as possible, are often made of recycled materials, are healthier for humans and are cheaper to build and maintain in the long run.
Thomson says that Frontier Associates has already advised the county to educate the building community about green building, instead of simply legislating it. "If you make it mandatory builders will just build to the mandates but if you make it voluntary, they will often exceed the requirements,'' says Thomson.
The decision was an easy one to make for the supervisors because the 600 hours of training through December 2003 that is being paid by grant money from the California Public Utilities Commission. Contra Costa is the first county to sign up with the program, along with the city of San Ramon. Frontier Associates is looking for a minimum of five counties or cities.
Frontier Associates spokesman Bruce Mast says his company is teaming with Austin Energy, a Texas electricity utility that is well-known for its green building programs. The two companies have received $565,000 to help Bay Area counties develop their own green building programs. "We're going to figure out what counties need to do in order to make green building business as usual,'' Mast says. "We're training the trainers.''
Part of the training, Mast explains, is teaching people how to evaluate how "green'' their buildings are by using an evaluation system. Buildings that recycle their construction debris and are located near mass transit, for instance, receive points. Buildings that use oil-based paints that release unhealthy gases into the air, on the other hand, lose points.
There are hundreds of factors lumped in several categories, which range from how a building is built to where it is located. The training sessions are expected to expand some progress already made by the county ever since the Board of Supervisors mandated two years ago that green building techniques be used, when possible, for government buildings.
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