You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar, or so the proverb tells us. That
may be why new approaches to design and construction seem to be most successful when they
are introduced first as voluntary measures that can be used to garner green credentials, or,
increasingly, to benefit from government incentives. But as new approaches gain market
acceptance they also begin to show up as mandatory measures via codes or other
regulations—quickly in some areas and very slowly in others.
Whereas incentives are welcomed by the private sector, green building requirements are not
always greeted with as much enthusiasm. What regulations there are tend to begin in the
public sector when governments make their own buildings meet environmental criteria. Now
jurisdictions are beginning to extend regulations to the private sector as well, using a
variety of approaches to mandate green building in both the commercial and residential
arenas.
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