Green Building Series: A Greener Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is becoming a national leader in governmental green building initiatives. House Bill 2, which was signed by Gov. Beshear in early 2008, provides tax credits and other government incentives to promote green building and energy efficiency for commercial and residential buildings. A High Performance Buildings Advisory Committee (HPBAC) was created in connection with House Bill 2 to set green-building standards for state-owned and leased properties.
On February 18, 2009, the Governor announced the HPBAC’s standards, which are based upon the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification system, for new construction and substantial renovations of such buildings. The standards are a sliding scale that requires (i) projects that are $25 million and greater to achieve at least LEED Silver certification, (ii) projects that are between $5 million and $25 million to achieve the LEED Certified level of certification along with minimum levels of energy efficiency and performance standards, and (iii) projects that are between $600 thousand and $5 million to use LEED as a guidance in design and construction.
The HPBAC also created energy efficiency guidelines for existing state-owned or leased properties. These properties are now required to “set back” their use of electricity during nights and weekends to reduce energy consumption and costs.
House Bill 2 was recently recognized as a “Megatrend” national model by the Council of State Governments and the Kentucky Finance Cabinet Secretary Jonathan Miller, who chairs the HPBAC recently stated, “This is not an end product, but the beginning of our journey. As new funds become available and as new technologies make energy efficiency more affordable, we will strengthen these standards even more.” Secretary Miller has also indicated that the HPBAC will reconvene shortly to determine whether funds provided to Kentucky pursuant to The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (the 2009 Stimulus)* will allow the state to implement additional green building standards.
* The Green Building Series will focus on the 2009 Stimulus in upcoming postings.
Geoff White is a Senior Associate in the Commercial Transactions and Real Estate Group at Frost Brown Todd, which has a Resource Conservation Committee that is helping it go green. Mr. White is licensed to practice law in Kentucky and Ohio and is a member of the Kentucky Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.
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