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'Green' construction becomes second nature to building industry: environmental consciousness has raised the bar for projects to include energy-saving features.

Article Excerpt
What do the Supreme Court and San Diego's construction industry have in common? They're both taking steps to address global environmental concerns.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that environmental officials have the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that spur global warming. Long before this landmark decision, San Diego businesses had already been actively laying the foundation for high-performance construction.

"Green" building, otherwise known as environmentally friendly or sustainable construction, has traditionally been identified with energy efficiency, recycling and the decreased consumption of raw materials. San Diego's industry leaders are seeking to broaden this impression of "smart" building to include both the reduction of a negative impact and the creation of a positive influence on the environment.

According to Clayton Herndon, an associate of architectural firm Arehitects|Delawie Wilkes Rodrigues Barker, the immediate goal is for designers to raise the bar so that today's green building will become tomorrow's standard of practice.

"As architects, we hope to develop sites that actually produce more energy than they use, filtering air and water so efficiently that they are released back into the environment cleaner than when they arrived," Herndon said.

Although the popularity of environmentally friendly structures has been growing since the mid-1970s,...

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