Plano, TX LEED Policy
Type: Policy
Status: Adopted on 1/8/07
Source File: http://www.plano.gov/Departments/Environmental+Services/GreenLiving/buildings/4policy.htm
Text:
As of January 8, 2007, a Citywide policy was adopted on sustainable building to demonstrate the City’s commitment to environmental, economic, and social stewardship, to yield cost savings to the City taxpayers through reduced operating costs, to provide healthy work environments for staff and visitors, and to contribute to the City’s goals of protecting, conserving, and enhancing the region’s environmental resources. Additionally, the City helps to establish a community standard of sustainable building.
The policy reads:
It shall be the policy of the City of Plano to finance, plan, design, construct, manage, renovate, and maintain its facilities and buildings to be sustainable. This applies to new construction and major remodels. The City will use the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system to determine what constitutes sustainable building by national standards. The City of Plano will require the highest level of LEED Certification possible for all city facilities.
LEED Certification points will be prioritized based on their ability to provide future energy savings, water conservation, waste reduction, and improved indoor air quality. Key factors to incorporate into the design include:
- Use of passive solar energy
- Natural lighting (day lighting) and adjustable lighting systems
- Highly reflective roof and building exterior
- Indoor Air Quality (low VOC materials and ventilation)
- HVAC energy performance and efficiency
- Use of on-site renewable energy
- Waste minimization (recycling, reducing, reusing)
- Water reclamation and conservation (rainwater harvesting, use of gray water, soil amendment, native or adapted landscape material, efficient irrigation system)
Return on investment will be considered when determining feasibility of implementing the above features.
While pursuing the highest level of LEED certification (certified, silver, gold or platinum) possible, the level will be determined by the points gained in incorporating the prioritized list of features into the design of the building. Decisions will not be based on including features just to gain additional LEED points.