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This chapter examines the effects of high-rise buildings on the environment, and the construction of more sustainable buildings. As of mid-2014, 46 of the 50 tallest buildings are under construction in Asia, putting enormous strains on its energy infrastructure. The energy used in operating buildings—heating, cooling, and lighting—alone accounts for more than one third of global energy use and of total CO₂ emissions. Including the energy used to produce and transport the concrete, steel, and glass, buildings account for over 40 percent of total energy consumption globally. With China responsible for more than half of the floor space built annually in the world, more energy-efficient buildings are the most cost-effective way to address energy and environmental challenges; the same is true throughout developing Asia. The Natural Resources Defense Council calculates that in China, green buildings can cut electricity use by 25 to 50 percent, water use by 40 percent, and solid waste by 70 percent, when compared to a conventional building.

Buildings are seen as nouns, not verbs𠀔things, not processes. The relationship between the design and construction process, on the one hand, and the operating life cycle of the occupied building, on the other, is thus typically misunderstood or ignored. Although both collaborative building practices and post-delivery performance auditing are filtering into the benchmarking standards of green buildings, this chapter states that they deserve more attention because of the transformational contribution these practices can make toward improving both how buildings are built and how buildings perform over time. Taking this broader perspective, the chapter argues for a life cycle-oriented framework for evaluating sustainable construction.

Worldwide initiatives to address climate change, specifically the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, have been a major driver for the increased focus on sustainable buildings. This chapter reviews the international environmental movement and its impact on commercial real estate. It summarizes the green building rating and certification systems that have been developed around the world and highlights current regulations developed to control energy use in buildings. Regulations include mandatory disclosure of energy performance data to investors and tenants. Finally, the chapter reviews recent research investigating the business case for green buildings. In the majority of cases, investors and tenants are willing to pay a premium for high performance buildings. Recent case studies support this by indicating that these buildings have lower occupancy costs and vacancy rates, proving further incentives to invest in green buildings.

What are the benefits of green buildings? How are these benefits generated? Who receives these benefits? This chapter proposes generativity as a possible benefit. It describes it as the organization's potential to produce enduring, expansive, and transformative consequences. In doing so, the chapter integrates perspectives from positive organizational scholarship—a framework that focuses on organizational dynamics that create positive states of functioning—and appreciative inquiry—a methodology that focuses on the search for the positive core of organizations—to suggest that green building can generate “microfoundations” of higher order capability-building and capacity-enhancing dynamics within organizations.

Chapter Five probes the zone of jurisdictional overlap that belies the dual federalism ideal, where both the states and federal government hold legitimate regulatory interests or obligations. It explores air and water pollution, counterterrorism efforts, climate change, nuclear waste siting, and disaster response as examples of interjurisdictional regulatory problems. Tensions among federalism values are especially heightened in these environmental, land use, and public health and safety regulation—all legal realms that match compelling claims for local autonomy and/or expertise with equally compelling needs for national uniformity and/or federal capacity. After illustrating the different reasons for jurisdictional overlap through these examples, the chapter reconceptualizes dual federalism’s bright-line boundary problem as a matter of “regulatory crossover” into the interjurisdictional gray area. The chapter then discusses how uncertain federalism theory creates two kinds of risk for good governance in the gray area: (1) that fear of doctrinal liability may deter needed interjurisdictional efforts, and (2) that doctrinal uncertainty may invite self-serving regulatory abdication. Finally, Chapter Five demonstrates the benefits of jurisdictional overlap through the detailed case study of regulatory backstop in climate mitigation and adaptation governance, reviewing regional cap-and-trade programs like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), federal and state renewable portfolio standards, green building requirements, and transportation sector initiatives. Finally, it applies its framework of analysis to the Katrina experience, concluding with reflections on how federalism theory more sensitive to gray area governance might have led to a different regulatory response.