Green Urbanism
Green Cities
Global Green USA works in partnership with local governments and other public agencies that are ready to “do” sustainability.
The goal of our work with public agencies is to create innovative and replicable policies, programs, and procedures so that sustainable practices become standard in the planning, design, construction, and operation of the built environment.
By working closely with agency staff and community stakeholders, we have helped create a number of innovative and precedent setting green building programs, sustainability plans, green urban design proposals, and climate action strategies. These include the City of Los Angeles, City of Long Beach, and City of West Hollywood green building programs, the West Hollywood Environmental Task Force Summary Report, and the Local Government Green Building Program Guide.
One particular area of emphasis is helping public agencies and developers of affordable housing use the new LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) rating system to advance their environmental goals and create models of sustainable neighborhoods. Global Green is the only technical assistance provider in the country to have certified three developments through the pilot version of the rigorous LEED-ND system and is working on several other planning projects that combine affordable housing with environmental design while pursuing LEED-ND certification.
Our approach combines a depth of expertise in green building, neighborhood planning, and sustainability with over ten years of facilitation experience. We contextualize this approach through in-depth research into the physical, climatological, regulatory/code, and historical qualities of the specific place or jurisdiction.
Throughout our involvement, we strive to support, guide, and empower staff and stakeholders to be the long-term stewards of the policies and programs that we help establish. The end result is environmentally rigorous, reflective of local issues and priorities, and able to be adopted with confidence and implemented with success.
Current and past local partners include the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, Long Beach, West Hollywood, Irvine, Santa Clarita, Santa Monica, Mountain View and Cupertino; Los Angeles and San Mateo Counties; the Redevelopment Agencies of Los Angeles and Richmond; the Housing Authorities of Ventura and Los Angeles; the Los Angeles and San Francisco Unified School Districts; and the University of California San Francisco.
Publications
Green Urbanism Program Case Study: Los Vecinos
Los Vecinos is a 42-unit affordable housing project that meets nearly all of its annual electricity demand through 93 kW of on-site solar photovoltaic power. Located along a light rail line in the southern part of the San Diego metropolitan area, this LEED Platinum certified project is the second Zero Energy Affordable Housing project in the State of California. The project, located on the site of a former dilapidated motel that had the largest number of police calls for any single address in Chula Vista, is a testament to what can be accomplished by a determined development and design team that stands by its commitment to extremely high performance standards. Released March, 2010.
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Green Building Criteria in State Low Income Housing Tax Credit Programs, 2009 Update
Global Green's review of the low-income housing tax credit allocation policy shows significant progress being made in the effort to make green building measures standard practice in affordable housing. This development is particularly apparent through a summary of the changes over the last five years to the green building criteria found in state Qualified Allocation Plans (QAPs), which states develop to guide the distribution of federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). For the first time since we started the analysis in 2005, all 50 states were shown to exhibit some aspects of green building in their QAPs. To learn more, download our 2009 report here.
Here are links to Global Green USA’s QAP reports for the previous four years:
Click here for 2008
Click here for 2007
Click here for 2006
Click here for 2005
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View All Green Urbanism Publications
