Aiming high for high performance buildings

When you think innovation, rarely do building departments lead the way in seeing beyond the horizon; as building code is often seen as unchangeable. When a community elects to exceed minimum codes, it’s often difficult to implement change to accepted construction standards.

From 2014-2017, Decatur, GA created and implemented a comprehensive sustainable building code providing residents choice, resiliency, and opportunity for buildings to respond to an ever-changing world. The team leading this innovation presented their strategy, successes, and challenges at the 2018 Transforming Local Government conference. The community, through strategic planning, pro-actively authored an “above minimum” standard, constituting innovation in the building code environment.

In 2010, the residents of Decatur, Georgia adopted a strategic plan with a goal to create a development ordinance requiring sustainable practices for public and private building projects. The community felt strongly that energy conservation and construction codes adopted by the state of Georgia were not following the same trajectory of sustainability and resiliency as other government and community resources already in place throughout the city.

Implementing a design-based, high-performance building ordinance that partners with established green building certification programs gives residents, contractors and developers the freedom to choose sustainable construction in the present and plan for future resiliency of their property within the context of known and accepted standards. The innovation of this program is rooted in the concept of choice, which in the building code environment is typically not even an option as codes often provide a single minimum path to compliance without regard to possible alternatives to achieve a similar result. The alternative for the City of Decatur would have been to write and adopt a “custom” green building code and then educate the construction community on how to build according to those standards. For a small local government building department, this can be an extremely taxing effort for staff to compile, implement and enforce. In addition, the ordinance would require frequent revision due to the ever-changing advances in resiliency and sustainable design practices. The high-performance building standard as adopted allows each of the approved certification programs to change their standards in real time to respond to innovations in sustainable design and construction.

The City of Decatur had two driving initiators in adopting the High Performance Building Standards. First, the Environmental Sustainability Board is a group of volunteer residents with an interest in improving the resiliency of the community. Second, the Unified Development Ordinance Task Force that was an ad-hoc committee of residents, designers, contractors, and city staff who worked together to review and apply the goals of various stakeholders and evaluate possible methods to develop a uniform green building code that was innovative and progressive. The strategic partnerships that developed from these groups during the planning and implementation stages were that people who knew much about sustainability and environment were now talking to people who knew much about construction and development. The result was that everyone has a reason for why the highest level of sustainable building design makes sense in a small densely-populated city. When these groups came together to the Decatur City Commission, they presented a unified vision for the future resiliency of the community. Collaboration between environmental groups, the construction industry, and building code officials showed the commission that there was consensus that the proposed standards would be accepted by those who work closely with the built environment.

For small local governments responding to the goals of the residents regarding resiliency and sustainability, specifically in building construction, can be very challenging to staff to implement. In Decatur, there’s a single building official, inspector, and plan reviewer enforcing building and construction codes throughout the city. If cities outsource their permitting and inspections to vendors, local codes and ordinances that third party inspectors a required to learn pose an additional challenge. With certification through the High Performance Building Standards, building owners and the building department needs only to ensure that projects are registered at the beginning and that the certification document is completed at the end. The city’s building department has implemented a community-wide change to sustainable design and construction of buildings while not significantly altering staff responsibilities or maintaining a written technical code, a commonality in larger cities. The City of Decatur’s program is unique in that it is comprehensive, mandatory, and allows three different certification programs in lieu of a single standard. While not replicated, many communities have adopted all or parts of what encompass the City of Decatur’s standards.

One great thing about this program was that it was easy to pay for. The Southface Energy Institute consultant was given approximately $20,000.00 to assist in the creation of the ordinance and to conduct a pilot study for the program. Since Decatur is a small local government, the program was designed to not require additional staff, inspectors or administrative items such as energy modeling software. This presents a tremendous savings to the department. The program costs are put into the hands of the owner/contractor/developer which allows them to choose their consultant, certification program and techniques to achieve certification.

One obstacle of implementing a mandatory above minimum standard is working with the construction and real-estate industry in understanding that sustainability in building design and construction should be as important as choosing a paint color or counter top material. The lag in the energy code in the State of Georgia has put the building industry behind in technology; and many builders have settled in to substandard construction practices. Many substandard builders become frustrated when the certification consultants come in and require additional work that used to be a way to “cut corners”. The home building market has largely corrected itself through the mandatory requirements putting all builders on an equal level when it comes to sustainable building practices. In some cases, substandard builders will no longer work in the City of Decatur because the added provisions prohibit contractors from cutting corners when it comes to sustainable design and construction.

Substantial renovations and improvements to property has also been of great concern. Residents were concerned that even small renovation projects would trigger compliance with the standard. Staff studied and responding to these concerns by amending the standards to allow small scale additions, significant interior renovations and historic preservation of existing homes without requiring mandatory compliance.

The research required the team to look at how the standards would affect new home construction as well as renovations. The baseline data indicated that new home construction had a turnkey value for land and structures of approximately $250 per square foot. Exit interviews with contractors indicate that the additional costs are often passed on to the structure as part of the selling price without adversely effecting home’s design or size. After nearly two years with the new home portion of the ordinance in place the city is finding that the additional provisions have not decreased new home permits and the certifications have had a one to two percent increase for newly constructed homes with “payback” of approximately three years. On large scale renovations, the unknowns are much greater and therefore the renovation part of the ordinance was deferred until a pilot study was completed. The city funded the pilot study on two renovation projects and found that there is a three to five percent increase in the cost of a renovation with the payback being closer to seven years. Based on the findings of the study and resident concerns about affordability, the ordinance was amended to allow smaller scale renovations to be exempt from the standards.

The City of Decatur believes that to be a futurist and resilient, a community must be proactive in their approach to responding to changes in the environment. Reacting to change after it’s too late, does not ultimately best serve the residents and the planet. The planning, construction, adoption, and implementation of a High Performance Building Standard at the community level is unique and innovative and, worthy of sharing with other people who share a futurist mindset.