Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Executive Order S-20-04 regarding Green Buildings on December 14, 2004. It established the State of California's priority for energy and resource-efficient high performance buildings.

The Executive Order sets a goal of reducing energy use in state-owned buildings by 20 percent by 2015 (from a 2003 baseline) and encourages the private commercial sector to set the same goal. The order also directs compliance with the Green Building Action Plan (PDF file, 166 kb), which details the measures the state will take to meet these goals. More details about the project can be found on the Documents and Reports page.

The Executive Order and Green Building Action Plan assign the California Energy Commission to:

• Develop and propose by July 2005, a simple building efficiency benchmarking system for all commercial buildings in the state.
  Please see: Benchmarking Work Group website and Dept. of General Services Benchmarking page.


• Develop commissioning and retro-commissioning guidelines for commercial buildings.
  Please see: Commissioning Guidelines and California Commissioning Collaborative


• Further develop and refine (Title 24) building energy efficiency standards applicable to commercial building sector to result in 20 percent savings by 2015 using standards adopted in 2003 as the baseline.
  Please see: Title 24 building standards information


• Report to the Legislature on energy and peak demand savings opportunities for California's existing buildings, per Assembly Bill 549.
  Please see: Options for Energy Efficiency in Existing Buildings - AB 549 Report to the Legislature


• Consult and collaborate with Department of General Services, Department of Finance and the California Public Utility Commission on a variety of other tasks.
  Please see: Department of General Service's website on green buildings for the State of California

For more information, please contact: