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2 <br />The adopted Energy Conservation Goal was restated on April 24, 2007 as Principle #3 <br />of eight Principles that underlie the process of updating the various elements of the <br />Comprehensive Plan. The Goal states the following, "Encouraging energy efficiency, <br />lower energy consumption and the use of non-polluting energy resources while <br />promoting air quality protection and an effective transportation system." <br />C. Research <br />How do smart growth, sustainability and green building standards relate? <br />County government has a responsibility to address both global warming and hazard <br />mitigation to identify how local citizens are most susceptible to climate change and to <br />best minimize local energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions levels. <br />Conventional building construction, use., and demolition, together with the <br />manufacturing of building materials, have multiple impacts on local, regional, and global <br />environments. Nationally, when life cycle costs are accounted for, buildings account for <br />65% of all electricity consumption, 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions, 30% of all raw <br />material consumption, 30% of all landfill waste generated, and 12% of all potable water <br />consumption. Typical residential cost centers and energy consumption are heating and <br />cooling (46%), water heating (17%), electrical appliances, including computers (31 %), <br />and lighting (6%). Focusing on local energy conservation through green building <br />programs is a community sustainability issue because it addresses energy and water <br />consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and landfill waste. <br />1) Smart Growth principles can be summarized in ten categories, as follows: <br />a. Create a range of housing opportunities and choices to provide quality <br />housing for people of all income levels. <br />b. Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration to create great <br />places to live, work, and play that respond to the community's sense of <br />how and where it wants to grow. <br />c. Create walkable communities that are desirable places to live, work, learn, <br />worship, and play. <br />d. Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place and <br />craft a vision and set standards for development and construction, which <br />respond to community values or architectural beauty and distinctiveness. <br />e. Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective. <br />f. Integrate mixed land use into communities as a critical component of <br />achieving better places to live. <br />g. Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental <br />areas. <br />h. Provide a variety of transportation choices and therefore provide citizens <br />with mare choices in housing, shopping, communities, and transportation, <br />i. Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities already <br />served by infrastructure, seeking to utilize the resources that existing <br />neighborhoods offer, and conserve open space and irreplaceable natural <br />resources. <br />