New Green Building Codes for Santa Fe

The City of Santa Fe has adopted a progressive Green Building Code for Residential Construction, effective July 1, 2009.

New building codes for residential construction were recently adopted by the City of Santa Fe for all new home construction, effective July 1, 2009.

The City of Santa Fe was the first city to adopt the 2030 Challenge which calls for progressively reducing greenhouse gas emissions from buildings until they produce zero emissions in year 2030.

The City of Santa Fe formed a Green Building Code Task Force to develop compulsory green building codes. The draft Residential Green Building Code described was the first of these codes. The Task Force has now split into two groups and added new members and are preparing codes for remodeling and additions to existing single-family residential buildings and for commercial buildings.

This Residential Green Building Code is modeled after the Green Build New Mexico program and address: Project Implementation Plan and Lot Development; Resource Efficiency; Energy Efficiency; Water efficiency; Indoor Environmental Quality; Operation, Maintenance, and Sustainable Practices.

The requirements increase for larger residences to help offset the increase in embodied energy in the building materials.