Oregon Health and Science University's Center for Health and Healing

The nation’s built environment is undergoing a revolution. There are almost 12,000 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) registered projects, according to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Slowly but surely, builders and designers are moving toward “green” and sustainable construction techniques for both new construction and existing remodels.

But in the West Coast’s biggest jurisdictions, the change isn’t happening slowly at all. In fact, it’s happening so quickly that some builders and designers are complaining that the  building and energy codes aren’t able to keep up.

“There are inherent challenges within the regulatory system that provide a lot of frustration to the development community,” says Katie Spataro, research director at the Cascadia Region Green Building Council. “A lot of that is inter-jurisdictional barriers.”

Building codes have been a part of construction for thousands of years. According to the International Code Council, the earliest known code of law—the Code of Hammurabi—was written as early as 2200 B.C. It assessed severe penalties, including death, if a building was not constructed safely.

Today’s codes aren’t quite as strict with their punishment, but they are much more prescriptive when defining what is acceptable and what is not. Modern building, energy and plumbing codes might direct design-build teams to use a specific kind of pipe, require a certain number of toilets in a building or demand a certain distance between a building’s edge and the next property (called “setbacks”).