Green Building Law Update

OCTOBER 30, 2021

ESG has become such a large component of my law practice that I am now collaborating with a fabulous group attorneys in ESG Legal Solutions, LLC, a new non-law consulting firm. Nancy Hudes and I are now publishing a new blog at www.ESGLegalSolutions.com (. yes, this blog will continue). This post originally appeared in that blog. If we can assist you or someone you work with in ESG strategy and solutions, from policy to project implementation, do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Regulation 156

Regulation West Virginia District of Columbia North Dakota 156

Green Building Law Update

SEPTEMBER 26, 2021

I am pleased to be speaking on “Environmental Social Governance (ESG) an Emergent and Fast Growing Area of the Law” at the Maryland State Bar Association 2021 Legal Excellence Week, Corporate Council Institute on November 16, 2021. You can register to attend in person or online. While there is much speculation about what the federal government will mandate the coming days about ESG disclosures, little attention has been paid to existing Securities and Exchange Commission required climate change

Legal 156

Legal Regulation Risk Security 156

Green Building Law Update

SEPTEMBER 19, 2021

ESG has become such a large component of my law practice that I am now collaborating with a fabulous group attorneys in ESG Legal Solutions, LLC, a new non-law consulting firm. Nancy Hudes and I are now publishing a new blog at www.ESGLegalSolutions.com (. yes, this blog will continue). This post originally appeared in that blog. If we can assist you or someone you work with in ESG strategy and solutions, from policy to project implementation, do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Legal 156

Legal Compensation Organization Sustainability 156

Green Building Law Update

AUGUST 15, 2021

ESG has become such a large component of my law practice that I am now collaborating with a fabulous group attorneys in ESG Legal Solutions, LLC, a new non-law consulting firm. Nancy Hudes and I are now publishing a new blog at www.ESGLegalSolutions.com (. yes, this blog will continue). This post originally appeared in that blog. If we can assist you or someone you work with in ESG matters, do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Legal 156

Legal Bargains Sustainability IDEA 156

Green Building Law Update

AUGUST 8, 2021

ESG has become such a large component of my law practice that I am now collaborating with a fabulous group attorneys in ESG Legal Solutions, LLC, a new non-law consulting firm. Nancy Hudes and I will be publishing a new blog beginning Monday, August 9 at www.ESGLegalSolutions.com (. yes, this blog will continue). If we can assist you or someone you work with in ESG matters, do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Legal 156

Legal Alaska Commissioning Permits 156

Green Building Law Update

APRIL 25, 2021

The 442nd session of the Maryland legislature adjourned on April 12, 2021. There were no balloons dropped from the balconies at sine die, ostensibly because of Covid-19 social distancing there were no high school pages to drop celebratory balloons from the balconies, but it is worthy of note that this year the legislature passed House Bill 391 making illegal intentionally releasing balloons (see below)?

Maryland 156

Maryland Housing Commissioning Regulation 156

Green Building Law Update

MARCH 28, 2021

A cause is now known for bird deaths that eluded scientists for more than 25 years. It is beyond dispute that there are human activities that have a known negative impact on the natural environment, but sometimes events come together, only in part arising from human activities, to create unknown environmental consequences. During the winter of 1994, 29 bald eagles died at DeGray Lake in Arkansas, the largest undiagnosed mass mortality of bald eagles in the United States.

Arkansas 293

Arkansas United States Comparison Environment 293

Green Building Law Update

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

The theft of catalytic converters to sell for the value of the rare earth metal components is a thing once again. A catalytic converter is a component part of the exhaust system of a fossil fuel motor vehicle that catalyzes, or accelerates the break down of vehicle emissions making them less harmful. The catalyst of a catalytic converter is usually Platinum (Pt), Palladium (Pd), and Rhodium (Rh).

Wichita 177

Wichita Insurance DC New York 177

Green Building Law Update

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

The Environmental Protection Agency’s has released the results of its 2020 enforcement and compliance efforts and those results off significant insight that business can benefit from. In the first 5 months of fiscal year 2020, EPA was on track to significantly exceed traditional numeric metrics in many categories with more compliance monitoring activities in the first 5 months than in any year since 2013, more in assessed penalties the first 5 months than in 7 out of the previous 10 years, more

Claims 207

Claims Regulation Environment Products 207

Green Building Law Update

JANUARY 10, 2021

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, H.R. 133, signed into law by President Trump on December 27th, extended the 45L energy efficient home $2,000 tax credit, which had been scheduled to expire last year, to cover qualified new energy efficient homes sold or leased through 2021. And yes, regular readers of this blog will notice that I am writing about the same Act of Congress I posted about last week, but the $2.3 trillion, 5,593 page bill, the second largest ever passed by Congress, provid

Leases 280

Leases Certification Claims Renovating 280

Green Building Law Update

NOVEMBER 29, 2020

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a draft National Recycling Strategy and is seeking public comment through December 4, 2020, with the goal of finalizing it in early 2021. Maybe not since Plato wrote about the value of reusing waste in the fourth century BC has recycling faced the challenges that we are seeing right now. The draft National Recycling Strategy is released against a backdrop where our current recycling, largely based on notions from the 1960s, no longer makes ec

Drafting 234

Drafting Resource Baltimore Materials 234

Green Building Law Update

OCTOBER 25, 2020

Among the most misunderstood term in a Phase I environmental site assessment is the Historical Recognized Environmental Condition. The environmental professionals who perform these assessments by and large do not take heed of Eduardo Galeano’s quote, “History never really says goodbye. History says, ‘see you later.’”. By way of background, a Phase I environmental site assessment is the process of evaluating a property’s environmental conditions and assessing potential liability for contamination

Liability 156

Liability Site Environment Commercial 156

Green Building Law Update

OCTOBER 18, 2020

This evening an ordinance will be introduced in the Baltimore City Council to adopt the 2018 International Green Construction Code. In the realm of green building this is a big deal. In the more than 4,400 code adopting jurisdictions across the country only the town of Gaithersburg , Maryland has adopted the 2018 IgCC. It is worthy of note that a second jurisdiction, Montgomery County, Maryland (that includes the municipality of Gaithersburg) has promulgated regulations adopting the 2018 IgCC, b

Baltimore 156

Baltimore Green Denver Maryland 156

Green Building Law Update

JULY 26, 2020

Last Wednesday the Environmental Protection Agency proposed greenhouse gas emissions standards for airplanes used in commercial aviation and large business jets. “This standard is the first time the U.S. has ever proposed regulating greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft,” according to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. And as much as I have railed against more and regressive environmental regulation in this blog, what is pragmatically proposed may be good for the planet and is definitely good fo

Regulation 156

Regulation Accounting Commercial Organization 156

Green Building Law Update

JULY 26, 2020

Last Wednesday the Environmental Protection Agency proposed greenhouse gas emissions standards for airplanes used in commercial aviation and large business jets. “This standard is the first time the U.S. has ever proposed regulating greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft,” according to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. And as much as I have railed against more and regressive environmental regulation in this blog, what is pragmatically proposed may be good for the planet and is definitely good fo

Regulation 156

Regulation Accounting Commercial Organization 156

Green Building Law Update

JUNE 14, 2020

This blog post is an update to my June 6th post, Two New LEED Pilot Credits Respond to COVID-19 , describing that the U.S. Green Building Council has now added two additional Pilot Credits responding to the novel coronavirus. You may reasonably infer that I have posted an update (. something I rarely do) because I believe the two new LEED pilot credits can contribute to a meaningful consideration of how to adapt to keep people safe in buildings and how to mitigate risk to owners of those buildin

Green 156

Green Risk Plans Safety 156

Green Building Law Update

MAY 10, 2020

The 2020 version of the ICC 700 National Green Building Standard (NGBS) is now available for free download and public use. You care about this because the NGBS is the most used green building standard in the United States. As of April 1, 2020, more than 216,000 residential dwellings have been certified to the NGBS through NGBS Green, the third-party certification program administered by Home Innovation Research Labs.

Green 156

Green Residential Certification United States 156

Green Building Law Update

MARCH 29, 2020

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last Thursday retroactively beginning March 13, 2020, a temporary policy regarding EPA enforcement of environmental legal obligations during the COVID-19 pandemic. EPA’s admittedly unprecedented temporary “enforcement discretion policy” applies to civil violations during the COVID-19 outbreak as a response to the deleterious effect on a wide variety of businesses.

Regulation 156

Regulation Legal Environment Mobility 156

Green Building Law Update

FEBRUARY 2, 2020

The negative environmental impact of concrete, the most common man made substance on Earth, has not been meaningfully responded to in 2020. Cement use in concrete is the largest single material source of greenhouse gas emissions in building. Concrete is the largest single material source of embodied emissions in buildings, and makes for more than 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Concrete 245

Concrete Green Materials California 245

Green Building Law Update

JANUARY 5, 2020

In the new decade American environmental law will likely expand to include you being sued by the trees. I don’t mean being sued by the Lorax or someone else who “speaks for the trees” but rather the trees will have standing to sue to confront environmental degradation and the like. This movement to empower nature is the single most impactful trend in environmental law.

New Hampshire 218

New Hampshire Legal Claims DC 218

Green Building Law Update

NOVEMBER 17, 2019

Two weeks ago, New York Attorney General Letitia James commenced a civil suit against the nation’s largest chemical manufacturers and several firefighting foam makers for what the complaint alleges is contamination of water supplies across the state with PFOAs, averring strict liability for public nuisance, strict products liability for defective products, strict products liability for failure to warn, and seeking restitution.

Liability 120

Liability Regulation Products Environment 120

Green Building Law Update

OCTOBER 20, 2019

EPA is expected to publish this week in the Federal Register the first proposed regulatory revisions to the National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for lead in more than 30 years. The United States has made tremendous progress in lowering children’s blood lead levels (. children are a good data set analogous to the broader population). As a result of multiple Federal laws, including the 1973 phase-out of lead in automobile gasoline, the 1978 Federal regulation banning lead paint for residenti

Inventory 136

Inventory Regulation Residential Risk 136

Green Building Law Update

SEPTEMBER 22, 2019

I am often asked, “how can I expand my green building business?” And I have offered the same response for more than a decade – attend the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo (. yes, you will have to talk with people while you are there). This year Greenbuild is in Atlanta from November 19 thru 22 with some of the best original programming on “disaster prep” (. more than food prep).

Green 120

Green Environment Atlanta Conference 120

Green Building Law Update

SEPTEMBER 8, 2019

Radon causes more than 21,000 lung cancer deaths in the U.S. every year. Despite that it is totally preventable, radon is the number one lung cancer killer in nonsmokers. Radon is widely described as the primary source of indoor and household air pollution in the U.S. High radon levels are found in every state. Levels can vary widely, even from home to home in the same neighborhood.

Foundation 120

Foundation Risk Green Housing 120

Green Building Law Update

JUNE 30, 2019

A lawsuit has been commenced in Maryland alleging that two net zero homes are not. The facts are gleaned from a review of the court pleadings and are instructive for everyone buying or selling a green building. The complaint alleges the defendant home builder and subcontractors represented “that their new homes would be “net zero” energy efficient however neither of the homes has been close to net-zero as represented.

Maryland 120

Maryland Housing Claims Green 120

Green Building Law Update

JUNE 23, 2019

It is widely accepted that the greenest building is one already built. So, why then on the 20 th anniversary of many state brownfield programs, is there so little correlation between green buildings and brownfields? Green building ratings systems, standards and codes expend a great deal of verbiage on aims reducing embodied carbon, including the currently in vogue whole building life cycle assessments in complicated, expensive and risky environmental product declarations and the like, but green

Green 120

Green Liability Life Cycle Maryland 120

Green Building Law Update

MARCH 17, 2019

Last Friday, Hudson Yards, the largest private real estate development in the country opened, but what the $25 Billion project may become best known for is that is designed for resilience from its giant “submarine doors” underground that can be closed to keep out storm surges to its own power plant that can keep the lights on even if New York City’s power grid goes down.

Certification 136

Certification Guidelines New York Defense 136

Green Building Law Update

MARCH 10, 2019

Use of lead is not new. Lead was one of the first metals discovered by man and was in use before 3000 BC. Beginning in 753 BC, the ancient Romans used lead for making water pipes and kitchen cookware. Today many believe lead poisoning was the culprit for the infertility of Julius Caesar (. who did manage to father one child despite that he enjoyed women as much as he enjoyed wine) and his successor, Caesar Augustus (. who was sterile), and was a contributing factor in the fall of the Roman empir

Leases 136

Leases Inspections Contract Regulation 136

Green Building Law Update

FEBRUARY 3, 2019

The U.S. Green Building Council issued a LEED Interpretation in 2018 ruling, “smoking of cannabis is considered a form of smoking for the purposes of both the interior and exterior smoking provisions of the LEED Prerequisite Environmental Tobacco Smoke Control.”. The LEED prerequisite prohibits smoking outside the building except in designated smoking areas located at least 25 feet from all entries and operable windows.

District of Columbia 226

District of Columbia Legal Green Residential 226

Green Building Law Update

SEPTEMBER 23, 2018

Much as NASA developed dozens of life changing and useful inventions that benefitted all as it raced to the moon, USGBC may be the catalyst for new, cutting edge technologies in the race to net zero buildings. There is no doubt that the newly announced LEED net zero certification program is aspirational. LEED has always pushed market transformation.

Certification 296

Certification DC Site Green 296

Green Building Law Update

SEPTEMBER 16, 2018

I am often asked, “how can I expand my green building business?” And I have offered the same response for more than a decade – attend the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo (. yes, you will have to talk with people while you are there). This year Greenbuild is in Chicago from November 14 thru 16. I do not claim any particular business marketing expertise.

Green 195

Green Environment Boston Chicago 195

Green Building Law Update

AUGUST 5, 2018

Last week a jury in federal court awarded more than $470 million to six people who live from one-third of a mile to one mile away from a hog farm, run by Murphy Brown and affiliate of Smithfield Foods, in a rural patch of Pender County, North Carolina. The lawsuit is the third to go to verdict of more than two dozen cases pending in North Carolina. In April another federal jury award ten families in Bladen County $50 Million.

North Carolina 168

North Carolina Sustainability Claims Iowa 168

Green Building Law Update

JUNE 24, 2018

In a dramatic shift the fastest growing environmental issue in 2018 is sustainable business practices. At a time when many issues are politically charged, including environmental matters, a major shift in public opinion is happening. There are dramatic changes ongoing as a consequence of the last Presidential election that will result in less and different federal government regulation and enforcement of environmental matters (i.e., rolling back environmental regulation was a popular campaign me

Sustainability 192

Sustainability Regulation Green Retail 192

Green Building Law Update

JUNE 17, 2018

Today’s green building standards, rating systems and codes are stale, largely based in decades old science and do not go far enough to be efficacious for most business to invest in. This is no longer a genuine debate over the negative environmental impact that buildings have on the planet. But the green building industrial complex is missing that green building can be the solution to many of the environmental impacts arising from human activity and at the same time make a business case that gree

Green 153

Green Risk Organization Materials 153

Green Building Law Update

MAY 6, 2018

With the upcoming May 25, 2018 effective date for the new European General Data Protection Regulation, the European Union law drafted to provide greater protections for the personal data of individuals, it is a good time to review and consider the large quantity of data generated by green buildings. The EU GDPR has long arms and its reach impacts a large number of U.S. organizations that might not expect to be subject to a European data privacy law.

Green 120

Green Organization Regulation Risk 120

Green Building Law Update

APRIL 29, 2018

Maybe not since Plato wrote about the value of reusing waste in the fourth century BC has recycling undergone the wide fluctuation, good and bad, that we are seeing right now. Today, the world has been forced to rethink its approach to waste. China is driving the change in recycling. Most recently, China imposed a 25% tariff on U.S. scrap aluminum. The import has resulted in a more than 15% drop in the price of mixed aluminum scrap this past month to 60 cents per pound, an amount that exceeds th

Certification 149

Certification Green Drafting Organization 149

Green Building Law Update

MARCH 4, 2018

This past week and there have been many other times this law firm was consulted about a marketing claim by a building owner with rooftop solar panels that advertises they “use” renewable energy, but the owner sells Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for the renewable energy it generates, so the Federal Trade Commission says it shouldn’t make the claim.

Claims 153

Claims Certification Green Electrical 153