All new building projects in the City of Buffalo totaling 5,000 square feet or more that are city-owned, city-financed or city/state subsidized should be LEED-Silver certified. The City of Buffalo should mitigate its contribution to global warming and reduce reliance on energy and natural resources while improving the quality of life or its residents, employees, and visitors. Multiple federal/state funding incentives and significant tax credits exist for going green. Green building practices are not nebulous, politically correct goals with little visible return. As many cities have shown, green buildings are valid economic engines that draw people into cities to live and work

Budniewski, Donna

English

All new building projects in the City of Buffalo totaling 5,000 square feet or more that are city-owned, city-financed or city/state subsidized should be LEED-Silver certified. The City of Buffalo should mitigate its contribution to global warming and reduce reliance on energy and natural resources while improving the quality of life or its residents, employees, and visitors. Multiple federal/state funding incentives and significant tax credits exist for going green. Green building practices are not nebulous, politically correct goals with little visible return. As many cities have shown, green buildings are valid economic engines that draw people into cities to live and work.Environment__Green_Building_Ordinances.pdf: 22 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

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A Green Building Ordinance for Buffalo

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5-27-2011 
A Green Building Ordinance for Buffalo 
Donna Budniewski 
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A Green Building Ordinance for Buffalo 
Abstract 
All new building projects in the City of Buffalo totaling 5,000 square feet or more that are city-owned, city-
financed or city/state subsidized should be LEED-Silver certified. The City of Buffalo should mitigate its 
contribution to global warming and reduce reliance on energy and natural resources while improving the 
quality of life or its residents, employees, and visitors. Multiple federal/state funding incentives and 
significant tax credits exist for going green. Green building practices are not nebulous, politically correct 
goals with little visible return. As many cities have shown, green buildings are valid economic engines that 
draw people into cities to live and work. 
Keywords 
Buffalo, Environment, Buildings and Housing, Policy Brief, PPG, PDF 
This article is available at DigitalCommons@ILR: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/buffalocommons/249 
A Green 
University at Buffalo Law 
 
Brief Summary
All new building projects 
feet or more, that are city
subsidized should
The City of Buffalo should mitigate 
warming and reduce reliance on energy and natural resources while 
improving the quality of life of its residents, employees, and visitors.
Multiple federal/s
exist for going gre
politically correct goals with little visible significance. Nor are they 
expensive add-ins with little visible return. As many cities have 
shown, green buildings are
into cities to live and work
Environmental Impact of Buildings in the U.S
Source: EPA 2004. Note: as of 2006
for buildings is at 74%
 
POLICY BRIEF   
 
 
 
Building Ordinance for Buffalo 
Donna Budniewski 
Student 
  
in the City of Buffalo totaling 5,000 square 
-owned, city-financed, or city/state 
 be LEED-Silver certified. 
its contribution to global 
tate funding incentives and significant tax credits 
en.1 Green building practices are not nebulous, 
 valid economic engines that draw people 
.  
               
, according to the DOE, total electricity use 
.
2
 
     January 27
  
, 2011 
“All things being equal, if 
[LEED] is the one thing 
that you have in addition 
to what your competition 
has, you win every time. 
It’s almost like you have 
another card in your 
deck.”1 
A LEED-developer in 
Cincinnati on why he chooses 
to build LEED-certified 
buildings.) 
LEED-Certified Building Projects are a Viable Economic 
Engine for Buffalo 
In the long run, it’s cheaper to go green. Study after study shows 
that it’s cheaper to build green buildings. Including mechanisms to 
reduce energy and water consumption into green design offsets most 
additional costs entailed in achieving LEED certification.The returns 
for reduced energy use begin immediately and accrue over the life of 
the building. 3 
 
Property values increase. Green buildings are attractive to those 
most likely to invest in “move-in” ready building space. According 
to a recent study in Oregon, green buildings sell more quickly and 
sell or lease at a higher per square foot rate, even in struggling real 
estate markets. People most attracted to an urban lifestyle with 
disposable cash are more likely to seek out not only the practical 
energy savings of green buildings 
but the often more aesthetically 
pleasing features incorporated into 
green design.4  
  
Return on investment increases. 
Up-front investments in green design 
and technology can yield financial 
paybacks over the life of the building 
in the form of lower utility bills and 
reduced operating and maintenance 
costs. The difference in the value of 
improvements twenty years later 
over initial “first costs” can be 
significant—even greater than 50%.5 (See also “Green Building 
Costs Less Than Conventional Building,” which includes recent data 
from numerous studies showing that “first costs” for green buildings 
are not significantly higher than non-green building projects at 
http://www.stuartkaplow.com/library3.cfm?article_id=173)  
 
Overall health of employees/residents increases. It’s a fact that 
any improvements in indoor air quality and reductions in indoor 
toxins result in increases in productivity.  Furthermore, 
improvements in residents’ health and satisfaction reduce already 
burdened health and litigation systems.6 
 
Overall economic growth. According to a 2009 study, LEED 
construction contributed $703 million in wages, 14,998 jobs, and 
$830 million in GDP. From 2009-2013 the projected gains are $12.5 
billion in GDP, 229,850 jobs, and $10.7 billion in wages.7 Any gains 
seen by the City of Buffalo as a result of LEED-construction will in 
the end result in improved overall quality of life for its citizens and 
the city itself.     
 
  
(Slide taken from “Green Building Creates Green Jobs for a Green Economy” at 
USBG’s website: http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1954.) 
 
Rustbelt cities use LEED as an economic engine.8 Pittsburgh and 
Cincinnati are leveraging economic gains from requiring LEED-
certified public buildings. Cincinnati city council members 
unanimously passed all LEED-based building ordinances, a 
“visionary” act according to some councilmembers and a developer 
participating in the project. Cincinnati offers significant and long-
lasting tax abatement incentive, 75% for 15 years, for those who 
build LEED-certified buildings; the city only requires the minimum 
LEED certification to receive the tax abatement. Developers cited 
that abatement as the primary incentive to build in the city over other 
areas, but also cited savings in operation and maintenance of LEED 
buildings as an incentive. Pittsburgh’s city council also unanimously 
passed its green building ordinance, which stipulates all buildings 
10,000 feet and larger and costing $2 million or more must be LEED 
Silver certified.9 
    
Why LEED Silver?  
LEED Silver certification today is considered a baseline, with many 
cities choosing Gold or Platinum certification. Many cities choose 
Silver because it is easier to achieve and less complicated from an 
administrative point of view.10 City planners view LEED Silver as an 
“appropriate means to walk before we start running.”11
Buffalo Green Building Ordinance 
 
Sec. 1.0. TITLE: The provisions of Section 1.0 through Section 9.0 
shall be known as the “The Buffalo Green Building Ordinance.”  
 
Sec. 2.0. PURPOSE AND INTENT.  
(a) The purpose of this ordinance is to ensure that residents and 
employees living and working in Buffalo’s city-owned, city-
subsidized, and/or publicly funded new buildings of 5,000 
square feet or more, shall benefit from pervasive and well-
established national and state standards that promote  
sustainable and environmentally healthy building practices. 
 
(b) The intent of this ordinance is to mandate green building 
practices designed to encourage the following: construction 
of environmentally sustainable municipal buildings; 
reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate the 
impacts of climate change; resource conservation; energy 
efficiency; and the health and productivity of residents, 
workers, and visitors to the City of Buffalo.  
 
(c) The intent of this ordinance is to move Buffalo’s building 
stock toward practices that improve quality of life, raise the 
social capital of the city center, and create viable and lasting 
green jobs.  
 
(d) Many green jobs will arise within already existing sectors of 
the building trade. Those jobs require a skilled workforce. 
The City of Buffalo shall facilitate training pathways in 
partnership with local unions and contractors so that local 
residents will more easily gain entrance into a green-skilled 
workforce.   
 
(e) A further primary intent of this ordinance is for the owners 
and occupants of new commercial buildings, offices, mixed-
use buildings, and residences to gain the economic benefits 
of energy and water savings, and the health benefits of good 
indoor air quality. 
 
(f) The City of Buffalo, through its leadership and appropriate 
departments, shall commit itself to green building projects 
and sustainable development and shall through this 
commitment become a major governmental leader in the 
region and state in adopting green building mandates that 
reflect and embrace the unique characteristics of its people 
and its history, while securing its economic future by actively 
participating in a well-established, profitable, green economy 
derived from this initiative.  
 
(g) The city of Buffalo shall secure its future as a regional leader 
in green building practices and in the creation of a viable 
green economy derived this initiative.  
 
Sec. 3.0. DESIGNATION OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR 
ADMINISTRATION AND IMPLEMENTATION. 
The program shall be administered by the City of Buffalo’s Building 
and Permits and Inspection Services, which shall be responsible for 
working with all appropriate city departments in the implementation 
of methods to fund, promote, apply for incentives and for developing 
any appropriate or necessary application procedures, including but 
not limited to: the program application form; developing policies and 
procedures for implementation of the green building program, and 
providing the certifications for use in the program.  
 
Sec. 4.0. GREEN BUILDING STANDARDS. 
(a) The program shall require LEED Silver certification standards, 
developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, for all new city-
owned, city-subsidized, or publicly funded buildings that are 5,000 
square feet or more.  
 
 (b) The City of Buffalo shall adopt and implement year-to-year 
energy use reduction goals for new government-owned buildings 
 
 (c) The City of Buffalo shall develop mechanisms for tracking and 
reporting its monthly water and energy use for new building projects 
(potentially this could be done on a public web site) as an incentive 
to attract and promote the public’s support as well as to encourage 
future green building projects.  
 
(d) This ordinance will apply to any City-owned building and to any 
building over 5,000 square feet receiving any form of state, local or 
federal government funding, whether in the form of a grant, loan, tax 
abatement, or other incentive, which has a value to the recipient of 
$100,000 or more. 
 
Sec. 5.0. INCENTIVES. 
(a) The program shall include incentives designed to encourage 
green building projects, including, where feasible and 
permissible, streamlining and fast-tracking building permit 
applications based on appropriate site and development 
plans. 
 
(b) This program shall develop incentives that reduce fees for 
certification, building permits, and where possible, 
contributes funding either through annual rebates or refunds 
based on each plan’s overall contribution to the energy grid 
and its fulfillment of program goals.  
 
(c) For example, the City of Buffalo shall provide annual rebates 
for businesses/building projects that supply 10% or more of 
their annual energy needs through solar, wind, or other 
alternative energy means.  
 . 
Sec. 7.0. CERTIFICATION. 
LEED certification functions as a qualified third party certification 
that accounts for meeting benchmarks in energy and water 
efficiency, indoor air quality, and use of sustainable building 
materials. For the purpose of this section of the ordinance, "third 
party" means any person or entity authorized to certify a new 
building project as LEED Silver according to the requirements of the 
USGB LEED certification standards.   
 
Sec. 8.0. EDUCATION AND TRAINING. 
The building inspection department in conjunction with other 
appropriate departments, and local leaders and experts in green 
building projects, where possible, shall conduct education and 
training at least once per year for all interested parties regarding 
efficient green building practices.
                                                            
1
 Buildings Energy 2009 Databook, U.S. Department of Energy. Accessed November 17, 
2010, at http://buildingsdatabook.eren.doe.gov/Default.aspx 
2
 Id.  
3
 Summary of Government LEED Incentives, U.S. Green Building Council, March 2009. 
Accessed Oct. 14, 2010, at http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=2021 
4
 “According to a study conducted by McGraw-Hill Construction, a building’s value 
increases by almost 8%, return on investment improves approximately 7% and occupancy 
ratio and rent ratio increases grow more than 3% when ‘green’ is a part of the equation. 
 The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) projects that commercial green 
construction starts will grow approximately 10% in 2010, despite the general decline in 
construction.” Accessed November 11, 2010, at 
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2009/08/why-leed/.  
5
 “Green Building Creates Green Jobs for a Green Economy.” Accessed Nov. 17, 2010 at   
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1954.  
6
 As a guide for the “Policy Rationale” outline I relied heavily on Seattle’s Department of 
Planning and Development website and article “Why Build Green” at: 
http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/dpd/GreenBuilding/OurProgram/WhyBuildGreen/default.asp.  
7
 “Green Building Creates Green Jobs for a Green Economy.” Accessed Nov. 17, 2010.   
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1954.  
8
 Id.  
9
 “City of Pittsburgh Shows Green Building Leadership Again,” Green Building Alliance, 
July 21, 2009.  
Accessed Nov. 17, 2010, at http://www.gbapgh.org/Files/PressRelease-
SustainableDevelopmentforPubliclyFinancedBuildings.pdf.  
10
 Dennis Boothe, Lori Leonardo, Darren Rowles, “LEED Building Ordinances for Local 
Governments.” Accessed November 17, 2010, at 
http://www.law.uga.edu/landuseclinic/research/leed.pdf.  
 
11
 Email exchanges between Donna Budniewski, Will Wright, Director of Government 
and Public Affairs , American Institute of Architects Los Angeles Chapter, and Deborah 
Kahen City of Los Angeles,  Department of City Planning, Nov. 17-18,  2010.  
 
____________________________________________________________ 
 
Partnership for the Public Good    
www.ppgbuffalo.org    
237 Main St., Suite 1200, Buffalo NY 14203 
____________________________________________________________ 
 


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