The town of Falmouth, Massachusetts near Cape Cod, authorized funding for a pilot project to evaluate the efficacy, installation cost and public acceptance of both composting and urine-diverting toilets (called Eco-toilet Demonstration Program). Homeowners were given rebates and other incentives (called the Falmouth Eco-Toilet Incentive Program) to encourage them to use eco-toilets. Massachusetts is the first state to give a variance to allow urine-diverting fixtures and site-built composting toilets, which do not have ‘product acceptance’ in Massachusetts
2016 Housing Design Demonstration Policy, Bainbridge Island, WA*
Inspired by an innovative housing program in Kirkland, WA, in 2009 the City of Bainbridge Island adopted the Housing Design Demonstration Program (HDDP) to encourage affordable housing, a vibrant pedestrian oriented-downtown, and innovative green building design. The program offers a 1.5x density bonus to green-certified affordable housing projects. To-date more than 250 new homes have been green building certified, including the solar-powered Grow Community.
Seattle Goes Deep Green with Living Building Pilot Ordinance*
In December 2009 the City of Seattle wrote a page in the history of green building leadership, when their City Council adopted Ordinance 123206, establishing the Living Building Pilot Program. The Program’s goal is to promote buildings that meet the Living Building Challenge (full Certification or Petal Recognition) by providing flexibility in development standards in Seattle’s Land use codes. The Bullitt Center building in the Capitol Hill Neighborhood was the first to be built under the Program.
2015 PASSIVE HOUSE TAX CREDIT BY PENNSYLVANIA HOUSING AGENCY
In 2015, Pennsylvania became the US first state to give buildings designed to the Passive House standard a scoring advantage, in the annual competitive award program to win low-income housing federal tax credits. In 2015-16, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) awarded the credit to 18 “certifiable” projects totalling 922 housing units, making the state home to the largest concentration of Passive House dwellings in the US.