Long the city of high crime, poverty and neglect by the federal government which calls it home, Washington D.C. has passed some of the most progressive sustainability regulations in the country since 2006. For example in December 2006, Washington mandated, among other things, that private buildings 50,000 square feet or larger have to submit a checklist of green features by 2009, and meet LEED NC 2.2 standards by 2012. In addition to green building regulations, Washington has enacted comprehensive sustainability legislation, including a Clean and Affordable Energy Act, a Green Summer Jobs bill, a Climate Initiative and stormwater and water quality regulations.

I spend a lot of time counseling legislators on how to get legislation -- often far less comprehensive -- enacted, so I wanted to speak to the team behind the Washington legislation to find out what was working and what was not, and how it all got legislated in the first place. Alan Heymann, public information officer for the District Department of the Environment (DDOE), set up a conference with Brendan Shane, director of the Office of Policy and Sustainability, Shane Farthing, development coordinator, and Stella Tarnay, green building coordinator, for an inside look at the state of sustainability in the nation's capital.

According to the DDOE representatives, "In general, the D.C. area is very proactive on green buildings. We have per capita largest number of green buildings. The climate for green buildings has been very good. We have gotten a lot of cooperation with industry on these measures."

That cooperation was apparently critical to passing the green building act. The District government involved the private sector in the discussions that led to the green building act as early as 2004, and most of Washington's 300 registered LEED projects are private.

The private sector and the federal government acted as "pull" factors driving the green building act. "We have the benefit in the District of the federal government demanding LEED silver or higher, and the city government is demanding LEED certified or silver for any space it rents," the DDOE team said. "So the government, both federal and city, is helping the demand."

The green building act then came along as an additional push to build green.

"A specific set of developers really went out in front of the green building movement, but through the Green Building Act, the private sector saw that it was a regional and local priority," the DDOE representatives said. "The act had an educational component, as well. Once you become educated about green buildings as a developer, you are going to see the benefits."

Green building advocates and politicians were also a part of the equation.

"In terms of the inspiration for the green building act, it came from outside of government from a group of outside advocates to the Council of the District of Columbia to move green building discussion along," said the DDOE team.

Councilman Jim Graham and others were proactive in getting the green measures passed; the Green Building Act was approved unanimously. New Mayor Adrian Fenty and City Administrator Dan Tangherlini also have been highly supportive of the green efforts.

The establishment of the DDOE was another important piece to moving forward with Washington's larger ambition to make the nation's capital the greenest city in the country.