Wonder how a green grass roof (which would do wonders for the air conditioning bill) would do in the Sacramento summer?
Aspiring to be America's greenest city
State commitment helps Sacramento rank No. 2 in energyefficient office space.
By Mary Lynne Vellinga - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Green is the new black, and everyone wants to take a turn on the runway.
Sacramento is no exception. Its municipal leaders aspire to create the nation's greenest city -- a title also being pursued by cities such as Chicago and San Francisco.
"Our goal is to become the most sustainable city in America," said Sacramento City Councilman Rob Fong.
If that seems a tad ambitious, keep in mind Sacramento has a heavyweight helper in its quest: the state of California.
The California Environmental Protection Agency headquarters downtown was the first office building in the nation to earn the platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council, which developed the widely used Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system to measure a building's energy efficiency.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger now mandates that new state office buildings at minimum qualify for a LEED silver rating.
Developers submitting bids on a 1.4 million-square-foot state office complex in the works must not only meet the silver standard, but also show their buildings will produce 10 percent of their own power with solar panels or through some other method, said Anne Cavanagh, a project manager with the state Department of General Services.
"That's a new thing for the state," Cavanagh said.
A Bee analysis of data from the U.S. Green Building Council found that Sacramento has the second-largest quantity of LEED-certified office space in the nation with 4.3 million square feet, the bulk of it in state-occupied buildings.
Sacramento trails only Chicago, which has been showered with media attention for Mayor Richard M. Daley's quest to go green.
Chicago, where high-rises seem to sprout almost daily, has 5.2 million square feet of LEED-certified space.
San Francisco has 1.1 million square feet; Los Angeles, 1.85 million.
