City of San Francisco - Green Building and Efficiency/Electrification Requirements for City Buildings

Green Buildings

The Board of Supervisors for the City of San Francisco establishes the Municipal Green Building Task Force to oversee and assist in enhancing the environmental performance of City construction projects. The Task Force shall review municipal construction projects during their design and construction to ensure that the responsible City departments are complying with requirements outlined below, and may advise the Department of the Environment on matters of relatable policy.

The LEED rating system shall be used to certify the environmental design of the City's municipal construction projects. The minimum requirement for municipal construction projects of 10,000 square feet or more must be LEED Gold certified. Projects less than 10,000 square feet must meet alternative LEED credits outlined by the sponsoring CIty department. Green building regulations are found in Administrative Bulletin AB-093: Implementation of Green Building Regulations, which include tools and forms summarizing local requirements alongside related state and local codes.

Energy Optimization

Each municipal construction project must also comply with the following requirements related to electrification and energy efficiency:

All city facilities must receive electric service from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (San Francisco Green Building Code Chapter 99, Section 99.3).

Projects must comply with Better Roofs requirements (San Francisco Green Building Code Chapter 5, Section 5.201.1.2).

All new construction or renovation projects that include HVAC system replacements must be "All-Electric" with the following exceptions:

• Natural Gas or propane service and plumbing may be installed if necessary for processes or features separate from the operation of systems integral to Building functions, such as vehicle fueling and mechanic shop equipment.
• Existing equipment that uses Natural Gas and serves the project area, but is outside the scope of the project, may be retained. Projects which both (i) are served by existing equipment that use Natural Gas and are outside the scope of work, and (ii) include upgrade to electric service in the project scope of work, are encouraged to include sufficient electrical service capacity to, in the future, replace existing systems that use Natural Gas with All-Electric systems.
• Emergency backup electricity generation systems may use any combination of technologies permitted under applicable law, including combustion of fossil fuels. Zero-emissions emergency backup electricity systems are encouraged, such as onsite batteries that store electricity from onsite solar photovoltaics.

Electrification of Existing Building Systems

City departments must conduct an inventory of gas-using equipment in their managed buildings and upload this information to the City and County of San Francisco's online catalog no later than December 31, 2023. When gas-using equipment or systems integral to building function is removed, other than from a hospital and/or new equipment is required for a Municipal Construction Project, electric equipment or systems must be installed. If the equipment cannot be supported by existing electrical infrastructure, system infrastructure upgrades must be sufficient to accommodate the new equipment, future replacements, and the electrification of the buildings remaining gas-using equipment. New construction and major renovations at "Critical Community Institutions" that include HVAC system replacement and electrical system upgrades must comply with the following:

• Calculate the battery storage capacity and photovoltaic array size sufficient to ensure ongoing operation of the Building’s Tier 1 Emergency Loads to be met by battery storage and solar resources in the event of disaster or other disruption to electrical power, using a typical operational 3-day cycle in March as a basis of design; and
• Install battery storage and photovoltaics consistent with daily ongoing delivery of Tier 1 Emergency Loads and functions.

New Construction or Major Renovations at facilities other than a "Critical Community Institution" must comply with one of the following:

• Battery storage and photovoltaics sufficient to sustain ongoing Tier 1 Emergency Loads,
• Annual site zero net energy,
• Design energy use intensity (EUI) 50% better than the national median site EUI,
• For a Building with process loads that are at least 50% of the Building’s total energy use, exceed requirements of ASHRAE 90.1-2019 by 10%.