The City of Indianapolis has recently announced new incentives aimed at encouraging more green and sustainable construction projects to be undertaken by private owners in the Indianapolis. The City’s Office of Sustainability has partnered with the Office of Code Enforcement to develop the program, which will utilize reduced building permit fees as its main catalyst.
The goal of the program is to promote the use of sustainable building practices by developers and owners of new construction and renovation projects. The City hopes to accomplish this by reducing the cost of building permits for projects that incorporate sustainable design techniques and building materials. It will be possible for owners to realize up to a fifty percent (50%) discount from the cost of a building permit, depending on the extent to which their project utilizes green building practices.
An owner’s efforts will be measured by and the amount of the discount will be calculated using criteria that is primarily based on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building rating system that was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. It is not required that a project actually be certified through the LEED system to qualify for the permit fee discount, but any project that does meet any LEED certification level will automatically receive a portion or all of the rebate.
This program is the next step in Indianapolis’s green efforts. The Office of Sustainability was launched in 2008 and is leading many sustainability projects within Indianapolis, such as the greening of the City-County Building, the development of the Indy BikeWays project, and multiple recycling campaigns. For more information on the Office of Sustainability, please visit http://sustainindy.org.