Title 37
Public Property and Works

Chapter 24
The Green Buildings Act

§ 37-24-5. Administration and reports — Green buildings advisory committee.

(a) The department shall promulgate such regulations as are necessary to enforce this section by January 1, 2023. Those regulations shall include how the department will determine whether a project qualifies for an exception from the LEED, LEED for Neighborhood Development, and SITES certified or equivalent high-performance green building standard, and the green building standards that may be imposed on projects that are granted exceptions.

(b) The department shall monitor and document ongoing operating savings that result from major facility projects designed, constructed, and certified as meeting the LEED, LEED for Neighborhood Development, and SITES certified standard annually publish a public report of findings and recommended changes in policy. The report shall also include a description of projects that were granted exceptions from the LEED, LEED for Neighborhood Development, and SITES certified standard, the reasons for exception, and the lesser green building standards imposed.

(c) — (f) [Deleted by P.L. 2022, ch. 204, § 1 and P.L. 2022, ch. 205, § 1.]

(g) A green buildings advisory committee shall be created composed of nineteen (19) members. The advisory committee shall have eleven (11) public members and eight (8) public agency members. Five (5) of the public members shall be appointed by the governor; three (3) of the public members shall be appointed by the president of the senate; and, three (3) of the public members shall be appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives.

(1) The eleven (11) public members of the advisory committee shall be composed of nine (9) representatives one from each of the following fields: architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, energy, labor through the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, general construction contracting, building product and building materials industries who are involved in, and have recognized knowledge and accomplishment in their respective professions, of high-performance green building standards, relating to the standards set forth in § 37-24-4; in addition to two (2) public members, one representing an urban municipality from Providence, Cranston, Warwick, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, or Newport, and one public member representing the other thirty-two (32) municipalities in the state in order to ensure geographic diversity.

(2) The advisory committee shall have eight (8) public agency members representing personnel from affected public agencies, and cities and towns, that oversee public works projects and workforce development, who shall be appointed by the directors or chief executive officers of the respective public agencies which shall include the department of administration; the department of environmental management; the department of education; the department of transportation; the department of labor and training; the office of the state building code commissioner; the Rhode Island infrastructure bank, and the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns.

(3) The chairperson of the green buildings advisory committee shall be a public member chosen by the green buildings advisory committee.

(4) Of the initial eleven (11) public members, six (6) shall serve three-year (3) terms and five (5) shall have two-year (2) terms. Each appointing authority shall appoint two (2) public members to three-year (3) terms with the remainder of the public member appointments serving two-year terms. Thereafter, all public members shall be appointed to three-year (3) terms.

(h) The green buildings advisory committee shall:

(1) Make recommendations regarding an ongoing evaluation process of the green buildings act to help the department and the executive climate change coordinating council implement this chapter;

(2) Identify the needs, actions, and funding required to implement the requirements set forth in this chapter, in achieving high-performance green building projects for our public buildings, public structures, and our public real properties;

(3) Establish clear, measurable targets for implementing the standards, defined in this chapter, for all public major facility projects including timeline, workforce needs, anticipated costs and other measures identified by the green buildings advisory committee and required by chapter 6.2 of title 42 (“2021 act on climate”); and

(4) Identify ways to monitor and document ongoing operating savings and greenhouse gas emission reductions that result from public major facility projects designed, constructed and certified as meeting the LEED, LEED for Neighborhood Development, SITES certified standard, Green Globes, Northeast Collaborative for High-Performance Schools Protocol, Version 1.1 or above and annually publish a report to the general assembly and the executive climate change coordinating council of findings and recommended changes in policy.

(i) All requests for proposals, requests for information, requests for bids, requests for design/build, requests for construction managers, and any requests relating to obtaining the professional services, pricing, and construction for major facility projects by a public agency for a public facility, shall include the notice of the statutory requirements of this chapter (“the green buildings act”).

(j) The green buildings advisory committee shall have no responsibility for, and shall not develop requests for proposals, requests for information, requests for bids, requests for design/build, requests for construction managers, and any requests relating to obtaining the professional services, pricing, and construction for major facility projects by a public agency for a public facility; and the green buildings advisory committee shall have no responsibility for, and shall not select any vendors for any requests for proposals, requests for information, requests for bids, requests for design/build, requests for construction managers, and any requests relating to obtaining the professional services, pricing, and construction for major facility projects by a public agency for a public facility. Nothing shall prohibit public members of the green buildings advisory committee from responding to, and being involved with, any submittals of requests for proposals, requests for information, requests for bids, requests for design/build, requests for construction managers, and any requests relating to obtaining the professional services, pricing, and construction for major facility projects by a public agency for a public facility.