A bill passing through the General Assembly this session calls for green building standards for all Virginia government buildings — an initiative Del. Dave Marsden (D-41) said "just makes sense."
"We can't just drill our way to finding more fossil fuel," said Marsden. "We have to reduce demand."
Marsden is sponsoring the bill — one of several similar bills circulating through both the House of Delegates and the Senate — calling upon legislators to set an example of conservative energy consumption by following design standards set forth by the United States Green Building Council. Marsden’s bill would require newly constructed government buildings to meet the silver certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, standards. The law, if passed, would take effect in July.
"Everybody agrees on the concept,” he said. “I think the devil is always in the details.”
Del. David Bulova (D-37), whose district includes the expanding George Mason University in Fairfax, is one of the patrons of a similar bill that would also require state agency facility projects to meet the silver certification, but it gives the director of the department of general services the authority to grant exemptions. Marsden said his bill would not grant such authority, since a future director might disagree with the additional costs for meeting the design standards and would thus exempt everyone from building them.
"We need to have an objective measure that will last through various administrations," said Marsden.
Dave Kuebrich, an English professor at GMU and a green building advocate, said the university is adding a lot of “green” curriculum, so it's only natural that new buildings on campus would follow the same lead.
"We will be educating students to think in ethics of consumption and environmental issues they need to be informed about," said Kuebrich.
THE DIFFERENCE in cost for silver LEED certification can be significant, said Tom Calhoun, GMU's vice president of facilities. The school is going through a major growth period, and new buildings are sprouting up all over the Fairfax campus. More than 20 projects — including additions, renovations and new buildings — have begun or are scheduled to begin construction between 2004 and 2007. None of those buildings are meeting the silver standard.
"We always say we're the university of the 21st century, but we're building 20th-century buildings," said Kuebrich.
But Calhoun said green building, while not in any of the current designs for buildings scheduled to go up in the next two years, are incorporated into every building whenever possible.
"We use a lot of smart design," said Calhoun. "Some of those [silver standards] we would do anyway; some exist on every project."
If Marsden's bill is approved, the university would not be able to go back and re-design projects that are already too far along in the process. A few silver design features do not equal a certified silver building.
"To design sustainable features, we have to do it from the very beginning," said Calhoun.
Marsden said the bill would not require such projects to go through a re-design phase, since it would be "fiscally impossible." That means the 24 projects going up would lack comprehensive silver features.
"There's a little bit of lag time between what's possible in theory and what's actually getting implemented," said Kuebrich.
Calhoun said the legislation would be a step in the right direction, however, both for the university and for the state. "We welcome the legislation," he said.
Marsden said he hopes the legislation will receive the attention of non-state agencies and businesses. The ability to implement such laws at the state level is key, he said, since it's so hard to move the country as a whole in the same direction. Local efforts will lead national efforts, he said.
“This is mainstream thinking in Virginia now,” said Marsden. “I think a significant majority of Virginians want to see this common sense approach.”
The cost of building to the silver standard typically has about a 2 percent to 7 percent higher up front cost than a regular building, said Kuebrich. That cost, according to Marsden, is made up within three to five years. His bill would exempt agencies from meeting the standard if the additional up front cost of doing so is 15 percent or higher, which is usually not the case.
“Hopefully, once we do this, it will be easier for private sector projects to follow that lead,” said Marsden.