The law was adopted this year and will go into effect January 1, 2011.  Its goal is to encourage low pollution emitting practices, energy efficiency, and sustainable and environmental building development.  This code is our nation's first ever mandatory state-wide green building code. 

   Whether we like it or not, if the buildings are not produced up to CalGreen standards, we will not be leaving with a building permit in hand.  Unlike its predecessor LEED (which is voluntary), it does not allow one to choose from categories to achieve award qualification.  Instead, CalGreen is setting a minimum state-wide standard for all of us to help initiate a cut down on waste, emissions, and energy use to bring about change for a hopeful future.

     Hidden costs or extraneous costs - not true costs: like the tailings or waste from mining operations, that with acid rain pollute the ground water with heavy metals, but the cost of a ton of ore never includes the cost of cleanup.

     Life Cycle Assessment, a recently evolved science, is beginning to bring understanding to the use of building materials, infrastructure, city planning and waste management.  The true cost of living in our societies can't be based on the initial capital cost or 1st costs; the equation requires a 7th Generation view.  Cost currently is held up as the No. 1 barrier to greater implementation of just about everything; you've probably been subjected to "Value engineering" But has this become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

     Because of cheap Chinese made solar products, the entire solar industry thinks of the price of a watt of PV before considering the cost to society.  The glut of excess product hasn't helped either.  But has the energy community accustomed customers to look at energy generation as only initial capital costs?