Green buildings minimize energy consumption, maximize the use of passive resources, integrate with their surroundings, enhance and complement natural systems, and recycle and purify water and wastes, thereby helping to regenerate the resources they use. Municipalities can implement green building guidelines and certification programs, and benchmarking programs, and promote green building at the local level. Green building practices can also be encouraged in your community through public-sector leadership or incentives.

Municipalities have significant opportunities to reduce energy in municipal buildings. Green building and energy-efficient design standards for public and private buildings can be integrated into building codes as a way to demonstrate environmental leadership and reduce energy use in buildings. Pennsylvania’s Guaranteed Energy Savings Act allows municipalities to undertake energy performance contracting, an implementation mechanism that allows local governments to audit and retrofit buildings and facilities with little to no upfront capital expenditure required.

Progressive green building standards include the concept of regenerative design, a process-oriented, whole-systems approach focused on processes that restore, renew or revitalize their own sources of energy and materials. Biophilic design is another concept used to integrate natural systems into the fabric of cities through the use of direct nature (sunlight, water, air, plants), indirect nature (natural materials and shapes, biomimicry), and space and place conditions. Examples include tree canopies; vegetated hedges as protection from traffic; and using greenery for art, sensory, and aesthetic experiences.

Climate overlay zones set maximum GHG emissions per square foot based on a building’s use (office, residential, commercial, single family, or multifamily). Traditionally zoned communities can use a specific overlay boundary, while form-based zoning can be formatted by building type across different zoning districts.