We've all heard the stats by now. In the U.S., buildings account for roughly 39 percent of energy consumption, 38 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and 40 percent of raw materials use. Undoubtedly, there are significant opportunities to more efficiently use natural resources - for the good of the environment, people and the bottom line.

Green buildings are increasingly top priorities for developers, tenants and municipalities. For some they're a marketing advantage, for others a cost-saving measure. For some, operating a sustainable building or office space is part of fulfilling an overall company commitment to environmental stewardship. For others, it's about creating a high-quality work environment that improves productivity, decreases sick days and generally makes their office or facility a pleasant place to work. And with people spending more than 85 percent of their time indoors (at work, school, home, stores, etc.), this isn't just an ancillary benefit.

Governments large and small - from Los Angeles to Fairview, Texas - are evaluating and adopting green or sustainable building ordinances to mandate and induce the development or retrofitting of private and municipal buildings. Why? For one, to be a world-class destination, a city, town or state must offer good quality of life (indoors and out) to maintain its competitive advantage. Additionally, by reducing municipal operating costs, governments make better use of taxpayers' money; but by reaching beyond municipal buildings to the private sector, cities, towns, counties and states can have a more significant impact in reducing their carbon footprint.

For the past year, Sustainable Atlanta has been driving an effort with the City of Atlanta for a proposed sustainable building ordinance. Having spoken with dozens of peer cities in the U.S. and a few outside our borders, we've spent the past year looking at what worked well, what folks would change in hindsight and how to create a program that helps Atlanta meets its sustainability goals. Via numerous conversations with local business leaders, nonprofit organizations, the community and government officials, it's clear that there's great demand for green. How we get there is always up for discussion - and part of the democratic process.

With or without a sustainable building ordinance in place, there are a number of standards by which a building owner or tenant can measure performance.

•    LEED is a certification system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council that measures how well a building or community performs against a variety of criteria, including use of materials, energy savings, water efficiency, indoor environmental quality and others. Likely the most widely recognized building certification in the U.S. (with a growing international foothold), LEED addresses all sorts of built environments including neighborhoods, homes, offices, schools, hospitals and retail-new construction and existing buildings. Greater detail can be found at www.usgbc.gov. 

•    Green Globes is a building environmental design and management tool available in the U.S. and Canada. While Green Globes is more widely used in Canada (where it launched in 1996), it's increasingly an option considered by U.S. companies for new and existing structures including offices, multifamily housing, schools/universities, libraries and others. To learn more about this tool, visit www.greenglobes.com.

•    ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy. It's aimed at saving money and protecting the environment via energy efficient products and practices. Widely known for providing ratings to home appliances such as washers, dryers and dishwashers based upon their energy efficiency, ENERGY STAR's building energy performance rating system has been used for more than 80,000 buildings across the country. ENERGY STAR continues to evolve and expand as well-rating more products, including enterprise servers as part of its increased focus on data centers, and going beyond energy consumption to evaluate indoor air quality. For more about the program, check out www.energystar.gov.

•    GREENGUARD was founded in 2001 as a third-party product certification program for low-emitting products and materials. Chairs, carpet, paint, insulation, you name it, this metro Atlanta-based organization has tested it to evaluate products' impact on indoor air quality. More than 170 manufacturers offer GREENGUARD Indoor Air Quality Certified® Products. For additional information on the program and to see which products have met GREENGUARD's emissions criteria, go to www.greenguard.com.

Lynnette Young is executive director for Sustainable Atlanta, the non-governmental organization that facilitates the collective work of government, business, institutions, nonprofits and other organizations to develop and implement an action plan for environmental sustainability in Atlanta.