by Laurie C. Fisher, AIA, LEED-AP

Summary: The AIA-San Diego Committee on the Environment, or COTE-SD, has been hard at work making San Diego a greener place to build. For the past three years, the members of the COTE-SD have been following the status of legislative issues, concerns, and roadblocks to sustainability in various regulatory jurisdictions.

The San Diego City Council voted unanimously to adopt a sustainability General Plan Update and certify the accompanying Environmental Impact Report on March 10, 2008. Included in the General Plan is what is called the “Conservation Element,” which outlines the long-term goals for the city with regards to sustainability. The General Plan Action Plan has been developed by the planning department as a road map to implement the General Plan. Much to the pleasure of the COTE-SD, the City of San Diego has set an ambitious goal for itself. In the Action Plan, the purpose of the Conservation Element states its mission:

…To become an international model of sustainable development and conservation. To provide for the long-term conservation and sustainable management of the rich natural resources that help define the City’s identity, contribute to its economy, and improve its quality of life.

In addition to this mission, the planning department has identified nine priorities within the General Plan Action Plan, and two of them directly involve building more sustainable structures—basically, reducing our consumption of energy and water.

This spring, the COTE-SD was informed of a $12.5 million Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) that had become available to the city via federal stimulus funds. The goal of the program is to create jobs while developing a strong platform for energy efficiency and conservation. Ideally, the jobs and programs created would not only become self-sustaining, but would also contribute to the growth of the emerging sustainable building industry and clean-tech economy here in San Diego.

The AIA-SD supported the formation of an ad-hoc committee consisting of local leaders in the energy and jobs sectors to determine which proposals are to receive these funds. The formation of this ad-hoc committee was unanimously approved by the city council this past June, and, ever since, the committee has been very busy developing a strategy and reviewing proposals.

The ad-hoc committee has also decided to set aside $250,000 for development of San Diego’s Climate Action Plan, which is fabulous news for the COTE-SD. Within the Climate Action Plan lies the city’s infamous 900-14—Sustainable Building Policy. Although this policy has been in place for many years, its success is debatable. The incentives are unclear, and it fails to address sustainable building practices in a holistic way. One of the COTE-SD’s major goals is to find a permanent home for sustainability within the city’s government structure. With the knowledge that the development of the Climate Action Plan will be funded, the city is closer than it ever has been to creating a real policy for green buildings in San Diego.

You may know that the new California Green Building Standards (CGBS) will be in force January 2011. Although this is very exciting, it should not preclude the city from developing its own standards ahead of that time. Not only could we address building types that are not addressed in the CGBS, but professionals in the building industry would have an opportunity to become accustomed to the new vision of efficiency and conservation.

One issue that has been a big priority for the COTE-SD over the years is the reuse of water, specifically gray water. Although energy is certainly critical, San Diego has one of the smallest carbon footprints in the country (probably due to our climate). However, we have a major water crisis on our hands. At a time when lakes and reservoirs are drying up and states are fighting over water rights, we in San Diego continue to dump more than half of our potable water into the ground for landscaping. A major portion of the remaining potable consumption literally goes down the toilet. The Purple Pipe facility in Mira Mesa is under-used, and homeowners’ hands are tied with complex regulations that prevent them from building their own graywater reuse systems.

The COTE-SD has several members focusing on this issue at the county and state levels. Most of the legislation governing graywater use is regulated by the state, but local jurisdictions do have some autonomy and opportunity to develop their own policies. California communities like Malibu and Santa Barbara have created more flexible graywater standards that make it easier for homeowners to permit and build their own systems inexpensively.

The COTE-SD has met with San Diego County health officials in the effort to emulate these standards. However, health officials remain very concerned about the risks of contamination by human exposure to graywater. This has and always will be the debate: How can states like Arizona have effective and simple graywater standards while California remains mired in public health and safety issues?

AIA-San Diego’s Committee on the Environment is working hard for San Diego’s sustainable future. For more information or to get involved, please e-mail COTE-SD or visit us on the Web.