Scottsdale Green Building Program Launched

The program has four primary areas of focus: energy, building materials, water, and solid waste. A 36-page booklet, which was still in draft form at the first workshop, does a very good job of describing the reasoning behind the program, why building more responsible houses is important, and how to satisfy program requirements. Scottsdale’s hot, dry climate drives many of the program specifics.

The program is comprised of about 150 “green building” measures, organized into 20 different categories. Each measure carries a weighting of 1 to 4. To meet requirements of the program, an individual house must either attain a total of 44 points, with a designated number in each of the 20 categories; or it must attain a total of 50 points if fewer than the required number of points in each category is reached. (A total of 180 points would be possible, given all 152 measures with their respective weightings.)