San José's Green Building Policies
The City of San José has committed to ensuring buildings here are designed and built using Green Building principles. The City of San José encourages building owners, architects, developers, and contractors to incorporate meaningful sustainable building goals early in the building design process. By earning certification of buildings using the United States Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™) or Build It Green's GreenPoint Rated green building rating systems to document those sustainable building features, project teams can publicize their achievements.
San José's Green Building Policies
June 9, 2001: The Green Building Policy (Council Policy 8-13) was approved requiring all City of San José facilities to be designed to meet the LEED Certified Rating.
March 6, 2007: The revised Green Building Policy (Council Policy 8-13) was approved and all City of San José municipal projects and Redevelopment Agency building projects constructing or adding more than 10,000 square feet of occupied space are required to be designed and constructed to achieve at minimum the USGBC LEED Silver level of certification with a goal reaching LEED Gold or Platinum.
October 7, 2008: The Private Sector Green Building Policy (Council Policy 6-32) was approved and requires Applicable Projects to achieve minimum green building performance levels using the Council adopted reference standards as specified in the table below. For more information, please visit the Planning Division’s Green Building website.
Applicable Project |
Effective as of January 1, 2009 |
Commercial/Industrial -
Tier 1 |
< 25,000 square feet = LEED Applicable NC Checklist |
Commercial/Industrial -
Tier 2 |
≥ 25,000 square feet = LEED Silver |
Residential < 10 units
Tier 1 |
< 10 units =
GreenPoint or LEED Checklist |
Residential ≥ 10 units
Tier 2 |
≥ 10 units =
GreenPoint Rated 50 points or LEED Certified |
High Rise Residential
(75' or higher) |
LEED Certified |
September 8, 2009: The Green Building Regulations for Private Development (New San José Municipal Code Chapter 17.84) became effective. For more information on the ordinance, please visit the Planning Division’s Green Building website. |
