The role of local governments in fostering 'green' buildings: A case study

The process of creating and implementing Green Building Design and Construction Guidelines for the City of Santa Monica, USA and its interplay with city administrative processes is described and the strategic lessons are assessed. Like most North American cities, Santa Monica's civic administration had dealt with environmental issues on an ad-hoc basis, with individual departments designated to respond to particular issues as they arose. After extensive public consultation, and initial work by the guidelines team, the project was expanded beyond simple design advice, to modify existing city programmes and ordinances; and to create new ordinances aimed directly at critical aspects of environmental sustainability. Perhaps more important, the co-operation and co-ordination that marked the guidelines project from the beginning has continued since, possibly heralding a new way that city operations will address sustainability issues that inherently cross administrative boundaries.