The state of California sure knows what it means to “Go Green”! This time the initiative comes from the California Building Standards Commission. The latter has announced a statewide adoption of “green” building code on Friday 18th of this month.The announcement comes as a happy surprise among Californians, who are the pioneers to adopt such a code for their state in the entire United States of America!

Here’s what the Californian governor said,”By adopting this first-in-the-nation statewide green building code, California is again leading the way to fight climate change and protect the environment.”The Commission found out that in terms of higher carbon footprint the state’s buildings rank next to its transportation.

Thus, this announcement reflects a positive concern to improve the situation by reducing the carbon emissions. The new standards yet to be employed promise :

• 20% improvement in water use efficiency for both residential and commercial plumbing fixtures
• a 50% increase in conservation for water used in landscaping
• reduction in energy consumption by 15%
• overall reduction of greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2020

The new policies are envisioned to be in sync with the goals mandated in Assembly Bill 32 (passed as law 2 years ago).

Friday also saw the introduction of Green Building Initiative by governor Schwarzenegger (Executive Order S-20_04). This initiative calls for a 20% cut back in energy consumption by all state-owned buildings by 2015. As of now, a total of 13 state-buildings are LEED certified. According to the Green Building Initiative, the renovation of rest of the state-buildings will be planned in a manner to acquire a LEED Silver certification.

The initiative taken by Californian government is very inspiring. Let us hope that other states and countries of the world follow this trail in order to achieve a sustainable, greener and healthier tomorrow.
Source: enn