The Los Angeles City Council has collectively passed a Green Building Retrofit Ordinance that will retrofit all city-owned buildings larger than 7,500 square feet or built before 1978 to LEED Silver-level certification. The ordinance is being developed by the Los Angeles Apollo Alliance board. The ordinance mainly concentrate on retrofitting buildings that are located in low-income communities, as well as buildings that directly benefit those communities, like libraries and recreation centers.

The other goals of the ordinance defined by the Los Angeles Apollo Alliance are to:

Found a pipeline to green careers by recruiting disadvantaged workers into the city training programs that can train and connect unemployed and underemployed workers from under-served communities to construction apprenticeship positions on green retrofits and to job placement elsewhere in the public and private sector;

Improve inner city economic development by supporting local minority and women-owned green business development;

Ensure quality green products are being used and purchased locally, encourage local green manufacturing, purchase locally produced green goods that prevent waste and prohibits toxic chemicals that are unhealthy for workers for retrofitting;

Improve public sector career development within the city by hiring city workers from city training programs, and upgrade part time workers to full time.

The ‘Green Building Retrofit Ordinance’ shows how environment and energy policies can stimulate California’s economy. It will put people to work in green jobs, generate revenue for local businesses, save Los Angeles taxpayers up to $6 million in energy costs and cut global warming pollution, Derek Walker, director of the Environmental Defense Fund’s California Climate Initiative, said in a statement supporting the ordinance. Los Angeles is setting an example that cities nationwide can follow.

The retrofit ordinance is new in Los Angeles’ green plans: In addition to striving to be the country’s greenest city, in February 2009, the city has announced a plan to replace all 140,000 of its streetlights with long-lasting, energy efficient LEDs. This move will save $48 million in energy and maintenance costs and cut carbon emissions by 197,000 tons over a seven-year period.

Los Angeles Apollo Alliance is a broad coalition of community, labor and environmental groups. The green building retrofit ordinance is the group’s first initiative.

A report released as the LED lighting overhaul, the Rocky Mountain Institute highlighted the advantages of energy efficiency, in buildings and elsewhere, to the US by improving energy efficiency, the country can reduce electricity use by 30%, and reduce the need for coal-fired power plants by 60%.