USGBC California

Contributed by Dennis Murphy, Secretary, USGBC-NCC Board of Directors

USGBC California is a multi-chapter advocacy organization representing eight California chapters and over 20,000 green building professionals statewide. Their mission is to advocate for regenerative buildings and communities by providing thought leadership and a unified voice to guide the epic transformation to a sustainable built environment and economy. Dennis Murphy has chaired the organization from its inception. He is aided by Dan Geiger, who advises the Executive Committee, Paul Wermer, who heads the Council of Experts effort, and Panama Bartholomy, who was instrumental in building support from the other seven California Chapters.

USGBC California, initially named USGBC California Advocacy Committee (CAC), has been focused on building out an evergreen organization that has a consistent presence in Sacramento policy discussions. USGBC California’s pooled-resource coalition has been singled out as a model for both multiple-chapter states and individual chapter-branch relationships. The California multi-chapter operational environment was featured in an August 2011 national advocacy webinar.


In 2011, USGBC California was proud to see two of their sponsored bills, AB930 and SB128, signed into law by Governor Brown. AB930 establishes a California Building Standards Commission and SB128 provides facilities funding for high-performance schools. In addition, the large majority of bills they supported received signatures as well, including SBX1 2, SB361, 310, 454, 512, 555, ABX1 14, and AB849.
At the end of last year, they were able to tap the planning expert team of Ellie Casson and Aaron Welch, Co-Chairs of NCC’s Sustainable Neighborhoods Advocacy Committee, to conduct a very popular LEED ND (Neighborhood Development) “Brown Bag” presentation in the Capital’s Legislative Briefing Room. It was packed with over 25 legislative staff representatives, as well as staff from the Governor’s office, the Speaker Pro Tem’s office, the Building Standards Commission and consultants from two Senate Committees. Follow up meetings have resulted in numerous connections within the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, and opportunities for high-level consultation on a number of important initiatives, including the upcoming Executive Order for State Buildings, a successor to the landmark 2004 S-20-04 Green Building Action Plan.

With Greenbuild coming to California this year, 2012 promises to be action-packed. USGBC California is coordinating with USGBC Advocacy to jointly host a “Road to Greenbuild” Sacramento Policy Event along with the fourth Sacramento Advocacy Day. Scheduled for April 25, the Sacramento Advocacy Day promises to be their biggest impact day ever. Governor Brown has been invited as Guest of Honor at the evening’s “Top 10” reception, and stay tuned for more details.

In addition to consulting on green building and planning issues, reviewing legislation and commenting on regulatory proceedings, USGBC California is engaged in two major complementary projects: the Council of Experts and Project Vox Populi. The Council of Experts looks to leverage the various skill sets of the statewide membership through a committee of experts, who possess solid technical knowledge. Project Vox Populi seeks to use the Council of Experts as a resource and will disseminate information throughout the Chapters, targeting USGBC California’s member base, decision makers, the media, and the voting public. Project Vox Populi will rely on a variety of media, including a soon-to-be-debuted statewide website and blog, social media, press releases, briefings, and webinars.