Federal policy, local policy, and green building certifications in the U.S.

Abstract

Buildings account for about 40% of total U.S. energy consumption and around a third of total energy-related CO2 emissions. Concerns about these emissions have led federal, state, and local governments to pass policies to reduce energy use in buildings. In this paper, we examine whether policies aimed at encouraging green building certifications are associated with an increase in the gross floor area per capita of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifications. We focus specifically on commercial LEED building retrofits certified under - :existing buildings: operations and maintenance (EB), commercial interiors (CI), and core and shell (CS) rating system categories. Using a panel data approach, we find that metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with local policies, particularly requirement and density programs, are associated with significant increases in commercial LEED retrofits. Specifically, we find that the switch of an MSA from having no requirement policy to having a requirement policy is associated with an increase of 0.22 LEED sqft/capita [0.02 LEED sqm/capita] (compared to an average of 0.6 LEED sqft/capita [0.06sqm/capita] across all buildings in 2016). We also find that federal policies and improvements to the LEED rating system are associated with increases in LEED certifications. While the impacts of federal policy and LEED rating system updates are difficult to separate, our work suggests that local policy, federal policy, and modifications to the LEED rating system can work in concert to drive green building adoption.