Illinois recently passed the Green Buildings Act (the "Act"), which imposes new requirements aimed in part at cutting energy usage and reducing pollution from buildings that are State-owned or built or renovated with State funds. The Act, which took effect on July 24, 2009, notes that an efficient green building plan has become essential, to reduce the increasing costs of energy for public buildings, to preserve the environment, to cut pollution, and to reduce peak energy demand.
The Act, which can be found at 20 ILCS 3130/1, et seq.,requires all new State-funded building construction and major renovations of existing State-owned facilities to seek certification by an environmental rating system. (Major renovations are defined as those projects with a construction budget that equals 40 percent or more of the building's current replacement cost.) These projects may seek certification from the United States Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, or from the Green Building Initiative's Green Globes rating system, or from an equivalent system.
All construction and major renovation projects, regardless of size, must achieve the highest level of certification practical within the project budget. The Act does not explicitly state who will determine what is the highest "practical" level of certification, but presumably this determination would be made by the Capital Development Board (the "Board"), which oversees construction and other capital improvements made with State funds. In other provisions, the Act gives the Board the power to grant waivers to certain standards imposed by the Act.
The Act requires that new buildings and major renovations of less than 10,000 square feet must meet the highest LEED standard for new commercial construction and major renovation projects, or an equivalent standard. However, the projects of less than 10,000 square feet are not actually required to get certified by LEED or an equivalent rating system, so long as they have met the standard called for by the rating system. Projects equal to or greater than 10,000 square feet have a more definite standard: they must achieve the LEED silver building rating for new commercial construction and major renovation projects, or the equivalent certification.
State agencies and the project design team may apply to the Board for a waiver from the standards imposed by the Act. To obtain a waiver, the applicant must demonstrate and document:
- An unreasonable financial burden, taking into account the operating and construction costs over the life of the building and the total cost of ownership of the building.
- An unreasonable impediment to construction.
- The standards would impair the principal function of the building.
- The standards would compromise the historic nature of the structure.
The Act does not explicitly state whether demonstration of anyone of these elements would be sufficient to obtain a waiver. However, the nature of the elements and the punctuation used to separate them suggests that an applicant would not be required to demonstrate all of the elements to obtain a waiver. (Certainly, most new construction projects will not involve a structure with a "historic nature," so it would be difficult to demonstrate that element in every case.)
In addition to the requirements outlined above, the Act calls for all new State-funded building construction and major renovation projects to implement at least one LEED alternative transportation criterion for public transportation or bicycle access. Lastly, the Act calls for a review of the green building standards it contains by 2014, or upon the completion of 10 projects, whichever comes first.
