Recognised green building certifications are to be integrated into the official property records of San Francisco, Phil Ting, San Francisco Assessor & Recorder and Melanie Nutters Department of Environment Director announced today at a press conference held at the LEED Silver W Hotel.
It is the first of its kind to be introduced in America in a move which is said to acknowledge the monetary value of environmentally conscious upgrades in the buildings of San Francisco.
The initiative is aimed at encouraging energy efficiency and developing growth in its investment.
“This is very cutting edge and groundbreaking,” Nutter said at the conference.
Several representatives from the green labels spoke at the conference in support of the initiatives claims, with a study used showing that green certified buildings have a higher valuation than their non-certified counterparts of 9%. (See below)
Green labelled commercial properties have higher rental rates of 22% and sell for 10% more than their comparable non-certified buildings, said Nutter.
Phil Ting revealed the green labelled properties also have lower maintenance costs which make them more lucrative than their non-certified counterparts, “We want to acknowledge that,” he said.
Currently, there are 250 buildings in the city carrying a green label, totalling 63m sq ft of space, according to reports from the Assessor-Recorder’s Office. The most popular certification is LEED, introduced into the city in 1993 through the U.S Green Building Council.
Such labels show that “the building was designed, built and operated to have a smaller environmental footprint,” Nutter said.
The recognised green standards are LEED, ENERGY STAR, Home Energy Rating System II (HERS), Home Energy Score (Department of Energy), and Build It Green’s Green Point Rated certification for homes.
San Francisco Department of Environment Director Melanie Nutter said: “over 53% of San Francisco’s carbon emissions come from the buildings. To ward off the worst effects of climate change locally means we must tackle energy use in buildings.
“The Green Label information now maintained in our files is an important first step in the universal adoption of ecologically-sustainable building practices. Reducing the ecological impact of our built environment is a top priority for so many of us in San Francisco,” says Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting.
