Government policies can affect the green development market, benefiting the design community and local residents. To illustrate, Chicago designs all new city buildings with atarget of LEED gold and a minimally acceptable rating of LEED silver. The city has constructed or is planning to construct 35 LEED-rated buildings, and 15 million square feet of city facilities have undergone energy retrofits. This policy has provided green building experience for a diverse group of local architects and contractors. Chicago’s Building Green/Green Roof policy requires public and private projects receiving financial assistance from the city to include either a green roof or pursue green building certification. This policy has led to the design of more than 250 green projects in Chicago, raising awareness of and developing hands-on experience in green building throughout the development community. These and other policies form a multilateral approach that is extremely effective at driving green building in Chicago while maintaining flexibility in the market.

   Learning objectives:

• Compare and contrast how different public policies may achieve the same desired outcome
• Predict common reactions of owners and contractors to green building incentives and mandates
• Summarize past and future Chicago green building market trends