building codes

To learn how your city compares to other cities your size check out Smarter Cities , a project of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The mission of Smarter Cities is to nudge cities towards friendly competition about sustainability. The website has a wealth of information about best practices and ideas cities are employing to become greener. You can even take a quiz to see how city smart you are about urban rehabilitation, sprawl, green space, green building, renewable energy, energy conservation, water, transportation, food, recycling and air.
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The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) sponsored a video contest and the clever+profound winner is Built to Last

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGJt_YXIoJI&feature=player_embedded]

“As large property owners and civic leaders, cities are in a unique position to make something happen in high performance buildings,” said Dave Hewitt, executive director at New Buildings Institute (NBI). “And many of them already have or are getting ready to.”

Buildings are responsible for about two thirds of U.S. electrical consumption and nearly half of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Fewer than one in 1000 new buildings meet readily achievable high performance standards. Cities and counties wanting to go green can take a good look at their policies related to commercial buildings and start improving this score by understanding the high performance building continuum.

Read the whole article: The Spectrum of High Performance Buildings