Green School Market Anticipates Building Boom

January 16, 2013 1879 Views Center for Disease Control and Prevention, flu, Judicial Council, Mission Hills Clinic

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The results of the November election will soon become more real in the Golden State, as a new law providing $550 million in funding for clean-energy and energy-efficiency projects went into effect on Jan. 1. California voters approved Proposition 39, which closes a corporate tax loophole for out-of-state businesses and allocates some of the $1 billion in funding directly to green projects, with much of the remainder expected to go to schools.

The Center for the Next Generation, a nonprofit public policy think tank based in San Francisco, projects that Prop 39 construction work will create 11,000 construction jobs per year.

The proposition decreed that green construction and retrofit funding would be allocated to energy-efficiency retrofits and clean-energy installations for public schools, universities and public buildings; job training and workforce development on energy-efficiency and clean-energy projects; and public-private partnerships for clean-energy programs.

When you factor in the passage of Proposition 30, which will raise at least $6.8 billion per year for school funding, it seems likely that another green building boom is imminent in the state.

California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson is a major proponent of green schools, currently serving as co-chair of the Green California Schools Summit & Exposition, which will take place Sept. 27-28 this year at the Pasadena Convention Center, north of Los Angeles.

The superintendent recently released $383.8 million in funding for new school construction and modernization projects throughout the state, which should contribute to a lot of green projects.

For the moment, construction and design firms are waiting on the state legislature to begin allocating Prop 39 funds, with various pieces of legislation already working their way through the assembly. Governor Jerry Brown weighed in on the topic by including the funding in his first budget draft, released earlier this month. Brown proposed that $450 million of the Prop 39 funds go to energy-efficiency upgrades at public schools and community colleges in the upcoming fiscal year.

Once the political process works itself out, new green construction and energy-efficiency retrofit projects should start sprouting up around the Golden State.