City and Town of Ithaca release draft of Green Building Policy

Tompkins Weekly Staff

 

A second draft of the Ithaca Green Building Policy Report is now open for public comment. It will be considered for approval by both the City and the Town of Ithaca in the next few months.

“The report provides policy recommendations for energy efficiency requirements and related incentives to substantially reduce carbon emissions in all new buildings, while emphasizing affordability,” according to a press release from STREAM Collaborative, an architecture firm in Ithaca. “City of Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick mentioned the 2018 goal of adopting a green building policy in his State of the City address in January. “

A public information session with Mayor Myrick, Town of Ithaca Supervisor Bill Goodman, Sustainability Coordinator Nick Goldsmith and members of the consulting team will be held at the Space @ Greenstar on March, 28 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The meeting is free and open to the public, but RSVP to noah@streamcolab is requested, but not required.

“The proposed policy would require all new buildings to be constructed in a way that will result in an estimated 40 to 50 percent reduction in Green House Gas (GHG) emissions compared to what New York State code currently requires,” according to last week’s release. “The policy would ramp down over time to require all new buildings to be designed to a net-zero energy standard by the year 2030.”

Property owners would have two compliance paths available to them, according to the release. There’s the “Easy Path,” based on a point system where the builder chooses from a variety of over 20 different features to achieve 40 to 50 percent GHG reduction, which would equal six points.

“Using the Easy Path, it is possible to comply with the requirements using only “affordability-driven energy efficiency measures” that would keep construction costs the same or lower than the average new building,” according to the release. “This focus on affordability is a unique strategy developed by the consultant team to address social equity issues. The point system highly incentivizes fossil-fuel-free development. For example, many points are awarded for the use of heat pumps, which operate on electricity as opposed to natural gas.”

The second compliance path is a “Whole Building Path.” This option allows for the use of well-known third-party programs, like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), and Home ratings to show 40 to 50 percent GHG reduction.

The Green Building Plan draft is available for download at Ithacagreenbuilding.com. Comments about the report and draft policy recommendation may be submitted at both the public session, and by emailing Nick Goldsmith at ngoldsmith@cityofithaca.org until March 28.

” The Ithaca Green Building Policy project is studying energy use and water use standards in new construction, and the policy tools that could be used to implement the standards through mandates and/or incentives,” according to the release. “Ithaca has a strong history of sustainability efforts. The Comprehensive Plans of the Town of Ithaca and the City of Ithaca feature Sustainability and Equity as thread-through themes. These plans state the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.”