The City's Climate Change Action Plan sets a goal of reducing the City's greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to 35 percent below 1990 levels.
Buildings use two-thirds of the nation's total electricity output and produce 30 to 40 percent of its green house gas emissions.
The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has established green standards for existing buildings, referred to as "LEED®-EB", which offer sustainability elements pertinent to many city facilities that are already constructed and operating, including those facilities in need of repair or renovation. The average LEED® certified building uses significantly less electricity than non-green buildings and generates substantially less CO
2
.
The federal government has proposed a massive increase in the amount of federal funding available for infrastructure. It is in the City's interest to have innovative programs to qualify for such funding in the event that it becomes available.
The City has an interest in employing productive workers. Research indicates that workers in LEED®-certified or otherwise "green" buildings are healthier and more productive.
There is a critical need for improvements in City buildings.
The proprietary interests of the City will be advanced by the use of project labor agreements, where the legal criteria for their use exist. Project labor agreements minimize the possibilities for labor misunderstandings, grievances, and conflicts, thereby promoting project cost containment, and timely and economical project completion.
Project labor agreements have the capacity to provide additional benefits, including facilitation of efforts to target construction job opportunities to disadvantaged City residents; prompt generation of tax flow and other income to the City; and more lasting remediation of conditions of poverty and unemployment through the provision of careers in the skilled construction trades.
SECTION HISTORY
Added by Ord. No. 180,633, Eff. 5-26-09.
Amended by: Ord. No. 182,259, Eff. 11-3-12.