EnvironmentLA

Fall 2005
Mayor Villaraigosa asks Krista Kline, Urban Planning & Design Coordinator from the Mayor’s Office, to draft a Green Building Initiative.

Summer 2006
Mayor Villaraigosa approves the Green Building Initiative plan, thus officially moving that part of this delivery agenda forward.

September 2006
At the Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) Housing Summit, Mayor Villaraigosa states that he wants to see “green building the way that all building is done in Los Angeles,” drawing attention to green buildings as a key step to greening Los Angeles.

October 2006
Claire Bowin from the Department of City Planning attends an APA Conference focusing on municipal green building programs. Claire meets Walker Wells from Global Green, who has been instrumental in helping municipalities set up green building programs.

April 2007
As Krista Kline and Claire Bowin work together to structure the Green Building Program, members from the Departments of Building & Safety, Public Works, Water & Power and EnvironmentLA are consulted. This group became the foundation for the Green Team that exists today.

The City of Los Angeles contracts Global Green for assistance with the process of institutionalizing the Green Building Program.

May-June 2007
The Green Team, together with Global Green, conduct six workshops to determine thresholds for the Green Building Ordinance.

September 2007
As the mandatory portion of the Green Building Program targets large projects, the Green Team holds a workshop devoted to developing a list of codes to capture smaller buildings. This list is to be the basis of Phase II of the Green Building Program.

November 2007
The Green Building Program Draft ordinance is approved by the Planning Commission and the PLUM Committee.

February 2008
The Environmental Engineer and PLUM hold a joint meeting and move the draft ordinance to Council, which is later moved to the City Attorneys’ Office.

April 2008
The Green Building Program is passed unanimously and Mayor Villaraigosa signs it into law on Earth Day April 22, 2008.

In its final form, the Green Building Program established three components: The Standard of Sustainability, which requires projects over a certain threshold to meet the criteria of LEED at the Certified level; the Standard of Sustainable Excellence which provides incentives throughout multiple departments for any project pursuing formal certification at the LEED Silver level; and the Green Team, which serves as a point of contact for the continued discussion of green building between the city and the public. The Green Team is believed to be the first codified, cross-departmental municipal group of its type in the Country.

(Last Updated September 2009)