City Council Study Session Agenda and Packet 2009 04 28

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The City of Louisville is well known for being a progressive, family-oriented community that can be proud of its historic downtown, strong neighborhoods, bike trails, parks & recreation amenities, and successful commercial districts. The appreciation of our City's unique heritage and rich character is demonstrated by a continual renewal and upkeep of our existing homes and buildings by homeowners and business owners alike. As we consider a green building program for Louisville, it is important to also keep our existing buildings in mind as a significant part of the program. Supporting healthy and energy efficient homes and buildings is a direct reflection of the strength, quality and commitment of our local community's desire to live in truly one of the best places in Colorado. GREEN BUILDING PROGRAM In the US, buildings are responsible for almost half (48%) of all energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions annually; globally the percentage is even greater (data from US Energy Information Administration). Seventy-six percent (76%) of all power plant-generated electricity is used just to operate buildings (data from Architecture2030.org). Clearly, immediate action in the Building Sector is essential if we are to reduce the effects of climate change. Within our existing building stock, one half of existing buildings and homes were built before there were any broadly accepted or enforced standards for insulation, air sealing, vapor barriers, proper sizing of heatinglcooling systems, and overall consideration of performance of the building envelope. Few homes in Louisville, built pre-WWII, even have insulation, and most existing houses and building do not have adequate windows and doors. There is a large opportunity for Louisville residents to reduce their consumption of energy in their homes and buildings through energy-efficiency measures, and this demand-side energy reduction is more cost effective than supply-side expansion by a factor of 7-1 0 times. The implementation of green building programs across the nation have shown a 22% reduction in building energy consumption through sometimes very simple demand-side management strategies (insulation, air sealing, etc.). There are numerous green building programs that address the need to curb our over- consumptive energy usage, and two of the most progressive green building programs exist in Boulder County (Boulder Green Points Program and Boulder County BuildSmart). The U.S. Green Building Council (USBGC) starting in the mid 1990's set their own standard for green building with their LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program for various building project types for commercial and residential. The National Home Builders Association recently released their ANSI, ASH RAE and ICC approved National Green Building Program (ICC 700-2008), which is designed to set a national standard for green residential building, an Obama Administration agenda. Programs to improve energy efficiency in existing homes have proven to produce results, and are beginning to have widespread adoption. The average home that undergoes a home energy audit and implementation of improvement recommendations realizes energy savings of between 30-50%. The desired outcome of Louisville Green Building Program would be to save money by increased energy savings, improve health in homes, increased building durability and longevity, and better resource usage through careful material selection. The City of Louisville is unique in that the boundaries of the city are nearly built-out compared to other Boulder County and Front Range Towns. New building will largely be comprised of multi-family and commercial square footage. Most existing buildings are under-insulated with faulty windows and poorly 11