Our state's world-class innovation and creativity is on display as over 40,000 green building enthusiasts are in Philly for Greenbuild -- the largest conference dedicated to sustainable building in the world.
One of the key policy drivers of green buildings: Updated building codes. Buildings account for 72 percent of U.S. electricity use and 36 percent of natural gas use. Modern codes arm policy makers and the building industry with new levers to drive greener buildings and healthier communities.
Changes to the building code update process, made by the state legislature and Governor Corbett in 2011 -- at the behest of the home building industry -- are preventing updates to building codes. This means that cost-effective industry best practices are being rejected at the expense of health, safety and energy efficiency.
Hundreds of changes to the building codes recommended in 2012 were all rejected by the board of political appointees charged with updating the state code. These rejected changes include safety improvements in addition to updated energy codes.
Pennsylvania is now building to the 2009, not the 2012, codes. If this process doesn't change, it is unlikely any new code will be adopted in the future.
Even worse, home builders are recommending further changes that would make it even harder to update building codes and could even result in rolling back previous code adoption decisions, enabling codes to revert to much older standards.
With the spotlight of the green building universe on the Keystone state, it's past time for our leaders in Harrisburg to provide the state with the tools to drive innovation and save energy. In Philly parlance: Yo, Harrisburg! Get with the program and fix the building codes mess you created!
Visit BuiltItSafe to tell your legislator to support modern, 21st century building codes.
