Los Angeles County Adopts Green Building Construction Plan

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors adopted a series of changes this week to building design policies for County construction projects. The new standards will require all new County buildings over 10,000 square feet to meet strict sustainability guidelines set by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

Among the sustainability rules adopted by the Board are requirements that buildings commissioned by the County include drought-resistant landscaping, water use efficiencies, natural indoor lighting and recycled construction materials whenever appropriate. The County Data Center, currently under construction in the Fourth District on the campus of Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, was designed to meet the new standards and will be the first County facility to apply for LEED certification once construction is complete.

This is an opportunity for Los Angeles County to be a leader in sustainable construction. We already own or operate over 5,000 buildings, from animal shelters to office buildings, to fire stations and we are building dozens of new facilities every year, said Supervisor Don Knabe. Using sustainable design techniques in the construction of these buildings will have an important impact in reducing the use of resources needed to operate our facilities.

The new construction policies adopted this week are not the only changes the County has made in the area of sustainable operations recently. The use of recycled water for landscape irrigation is already occurring at several County parks and golf courses. At Supervisor Knabe’s direction, the Department of Public Works is currently investigating ways to expand uses of recycled water for other purposes across the County.