The California Green Building Standards Code (CGBSC), also referred to as CALGreen, is the nation's first mandatory green building code.
- It contains regulations for energy efficiency, water efficiency and conservation, material conservation and resource efficiency, environmental quality, and more.
- It contains mandatory provisions for the following types of new buildings: commercial, low-rise residential, public schools. Appendices include voluntary provisions for all of these occupancies plus hospitals.
- The residential and nonresidential provisions have now been placed in separate chapters for easier use.
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From the Preface
This document is the 11th of 12 parts of the official compilation and publication of the adoptions, amendments and repeal of regulations to California Code of Regulations, Title 24, also referred to as the California Building Standards Code. This part is known as the California Green Building Standards Code, and it is intended that it shall also be known as the CALGreen Code.
The California Building Standards Code is published in its entirety every three years by order of the California Legislature. The California Legislature delegated authority to various State agencies, boards, commissions and departments to create building regulations to implement the State’s statutes. These building regulations or standards have the same force of law, and take effect 180 days after their publication unless otherwise stipulated. The California Building Standards Code applies to all occupancies in the State of California as annotated.
A city, county, or city and county may establish more restrictive standards reasonably necessary because of local climatic, geological or topographical conditions. For the purpose of this code, these conditions include local environmental conditions as established by a city, county, or city and county. Findings of the local condition(s) and the adopted local building standard(s) must be filed with the California Building Standards Commission to become effective and may not be effective sooner than the effective date of this edition of the California Building Standards Code. Local building standards that were adopted and applicable to previous editions of the California Building Standards Code do not apply to this edition without appropriate adoption and the required filing.
Effective Use of this Code
The format of this code is common to other parts of the California Building Standards Code and contains building standards applicable to occupancies which fall under the authority of different state agencies. Occupancies and applications under the authority of a specific state agency are identified in Chapter 1, Sections 103 through 106. Sections of this code which are applicable and adopted by each state agency are identified in the Matrix Adoption Tables located at the beginning of each chapter. The following outline is provided as a guide to establish which provisions are applicable to a specific occupancy.
1. Establish the type of occupancy.
2. Verify which state agency has authority for the established occupancy by reviewing the authorities list in Sections 103 through 106.
3. Once the appropriate agency has been identified, find the chapter which covers the established occupancy.
4. The Matrix Adoption Tables at the beginning of Chapters 4 and 5 identify the required green building measures necessary to meet the minimum requirements of this code for the established occupancy.
5. Voluntary tier measures are contained in Appendix Chapters A4 and A5. A Checklist containing each green building measure, both required and voluntary is provided at the end of each appendix chapter. Each measure listed in the application checklist has a section number which correlates to a section where more information about the specific measure is available.
6. The Application Checklist identifies which measures are required by this code and allows users to check off which voluntary items have been selected to meet voluntary tier levels if desired or mandated by a city, county or, city and county.
Other 2010 California Title 24 Codes:
