Tox of the Town
Visit the Full BlogWhere the Law and the Environment Connect. Tox of the Town is a blog written by attorneys in Greenberg Glusker’s Environmental Law Group. With years of legal, technical, and business know-how experience, we look forward to providing our readers with timely updates on environmental issues. Subscribe to our blog today to receive updates on changing environmental laws, regulatory and compliance issues, ongoing litigation, and more.
Building Energy Benchmarking: Are We There Yet?
In a classic case of “the devil’s in the details,” Assembly Bill 1103 (“AB 1103”), which mandated the disclosure of energy-usage data of commercial buildings in certain transactions, has yet to be implemented nearly four years after it was first enacted. The legislation set a deadline of January 1, 2010 for...
L.A. Takes the Lead in Replacing LEED
Amid much fanfare, in 2008 the Los Angeles City Council established the Green Building Program requiring, among other things, that most new structures over 50,000 square feet in size be built to the United States Green Building Council (“USGBC”) Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (“LEED”) basic “Certified” standard. To incentivize...
Can Construction Site Webcams Be Far Behind?
The State Water Resources Control Board (“State Water Board”) recently adopted toughened standards for water flows generated by construction sites under a new statewide storm water construction general permit, effective July 1, 2010. The new permit (the “2010 Permit”) replaces the storm water construction general permit in place since 1999 (the “1999 Permit&rdquo...
CALGreen: Mandatory Green Building Standards Take Effect in 2011
California’s first-in-the-nation set of mandatory green building standards for new construction is slated to take effect on January 1, 2011. Referred to officially as the California Green Building Standards Code, CALGreen applies to all new public and privately-constructed commercial and residential buildings. Integrated within the state’s Building Standards Code, it includes...
Seller Beware: Does Your Building Make The Grade?
Deadline Approaches for Disclosure of Energy Efficiency Rating of Commercial Buildings One of the ongoing challenges in making the case for “green building” has been to monetize the value of high-efficiency features, such as reduced energy consumption. In a “light-bulb” moment, the California Legislature enacted Assembly Bill 1103 (“AB 1103”) in...