The new PC—Policy Collaboration
It started in Santa Clara County, then spread to Marin, and now its everywhere in California; builders, developers, city governments, and environmentalists, all getting along and creating green building standards together. It’s the new PC—Policy Collaboration.
The Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG), a business development group, got things started in Santa Clara County by meeting with city mayors to discuss a coordinated building policy to replace the patchwork that existed in 2007. Once they got the mayors go ahead, SVLG got the endorsement of the Santa Clara Cities Association. Then representatives from the cities formed a group called the Green Building Collaborative (GBC), and the group began to meet with builders and to enlist the help of builders associations like the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA). With all those acronyms coming at them, the city councils in Santa Clara County, one by one, succumbed to the contagious enthusiasm and passed the green building ordinances.
Marin County decided to go ahead and do its own collaborating. San Rafael Mayor Al Boro and Planning Director Bob Brown started talking with other city officials in Marin about a coordinated green building policy. They formed a task force with representatives of all the cities, recruited some building experts, and created a really cool sounding acronym, BERST, for the Building, Energy, Retrofit, and Solar Transformation task force. The group reached out to builders, designers, and business groups to try to form a consensus. It was tough work, which for Brown became a half-time job. Cats and dogs is easy—this was bob cats and wolves. But goodwill reigned and eventually everyone agreed on a green building policy that looked a lot like the one in Santa Clara (see Table).