Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Green building standards coming to Big D

We need some good news, folks. And I read some yesterday in the Dallas Business Journal. The first snippet of the article is here (the rest is only for print subscribers so la-di-da).

But you get the gist from the first bit. The city is going to implement green building standards city wide for new commercial and residential building. There is a task force that is studying the issue and will be reporting back to the city council in March. Let's hope we get some standards that will really make a difference and not something watered down.

Of course there is concern that regulations like these will make Dallas less competitive with our neighbors for new construction. That may be the case short term, but in the long run we will have a leg up on everyone else as this becomes standard. And believe it or not, lots of companies actually want to be officed in sustainable development. There is one architect quoted in the article who has been promoting sustainable design who believes that this would be an immediate advantage for Dallas.

And when we get some type of carbon tax - and that's more likely a when not if - Dallas will be poised to take advantage of the system with new energy efficient building already in place.

It pains me greatly to say this - Good leadership on this issue, Mr. Mayor.

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