Expert warns Green Buildings Advisory Committee 'orphaned' after agency reorganization

Representative Susan Corfman introduced H7739, a statutory revision intended to strengthen the state’s Green Buildings Act and create a more durable oversight structure for high-performance building standards.

Ken Velasquez, who testified as chair of the Green Buildings Advisory Committee and as chair of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Rhode Island chapter, told the committee that the advisory group has been unable to function since the Office of Energy Resources (OER) separated from the Department of Administration. "We were flying blind," Velasquez said, describing a year without meetings or staff support after the administrative split. He said the Department of Administration told the committee it lacked staff and technical expertise and advised the advisory group to "look for a new home." He added that projects that complied with the law — notably some University of Rhode Island and Northeast Collaborative projects — moved ahead only because they had separate funding streams.

Velasquez described three changes the bill would make: give the advisory body an evergreen statutory home so it is not disrupted by agency reorganizations; elevate the advisory body to a commission with clearer authority and staffing; and add stronger implementation mechanisms that would link permitting and certificate-of-occupancy processes to compliance. "Rather than be subject to another state department reorganization statutorily ... we go with that automatically," he said, adding the commission would be supported by a revenue stream tied to permitting fees.

Representative Corfman and several committee members pressed Velasquez on the nature of agency pushback and on how amendments in the governor’s budget differ from the bill. Velasquez said state departments have at times pushed back on architects attempting to comply with the Green Buildings Act and that Department of Administration objections to the bill had been raised in a written letter; he said he would address those objections in follow-up comments. He also suggested repurposing an existing $50,000 budget allocation for a study into implementation toward outreach and education to municipalities and agencies.

The chair accepted the testimony without scheduling a vote on H7739 during the hearing. Committee members acknowledged the bill’s intent to reduce disruptions caused by reassigning statutory responsibilities across agencies and asked that the Department of Administration respond in person to the committee’s concerns in a future session.

The hearing record includes written materials and a scan of the American Planning Association award cited by Velasquez documenting the Green Buildings Act’s prior recognition.